Boyd Webb

Aotearoa New Zealand / England, b.1947

Untitled

  • 1988
  • Photograph
  • Purchased, 1989
  • 1900 x 1545mm
  • 89/149

Deliberately dislocating and enigmatic, Boyd Webb’s photograph questions the nature of reality. Photography can reproduce the birdcage and snakes with the sharp clarity of the real objects, but bringing them together in this way is clearly an absurdity. Or, it opens a portal to a strange new world.

Minimal and Conceptual Art during the 1960s shifted the emphasis of art-making away from the object to the situation, and from product to process. Webb works within the Surrealist tradition and has strong conceptual, performance and theatrical links. He has said, “I use photography because it is an essential fact of the age and I believe that an artist should use the materials and techniques of his time.”

Born in Christchurch, Webb studied at the University of Canterbury but then went on to study at the Royal College of Art, London, from 1972 to 1975. He began exhibiting in London in 1976 and has since exhibited widely in Paris, London, Chicago, New York and Athens. He currently lives in Britain.

Exhibition History