European
Illustration
Collection
Hull

Curator's introduction 3    page 1 | page 2




Ian is interested in clouds and amateur conjuring; he lived on a flight-path as a boy; witnessed A10 tank busters in Gulf War practice over Derbyshire; his studio stores a skull and skeleton, African art and jackdaw files full of chosen oddities.

Perhaps it does add something to know a little of what personal experiences and political events collided with expedient objects and scenarios to determine the mix, but it is emphatically not the answer to go 'pinning-down' meanings.

This is an 'Alice World' - a visual thesaurus with rational and irrational in happy coincidence. You must go with the shape and place changes it offers.

The original pictures on the gallery walls are unique works, but their web counterparts help entry into them; for me the ideal is to move between the two. I am continually amazed that despite my familiarity with these 76 works, new horizons keep opening up and revealing more with each encounter.

Kathie Jenkins
Curator
European Illustration Collection Hull
17 August 1999