Alan Constable’s lifelong interest in cameras began around the age of eight, when he started using scraps of paper and cardboard from cereal boxes to fashion his own. It may come as a surprise to people unfamiliar with Alan’s story to learn that he is legally blind (with limited tunnel-vision); and also deaf, which makes his world all the more internal and contained. As observers we can only project our own perspectives onto Alan’s work, but one could speculate that his physical challenges have defined his extraordinary artistic abilities.
Last year I was fortunate enough to work with Alan on a collaboration entitled Polaroid Project, which I initiated together with Arts Project Australia in Melbourne. Working on this exhibition was a memorable experience and a privilege that gave me an insight into Alan’s studio practice rarely offered to others. Polaroid Project later toured to The Armory in New York City, and was shown at the Fleisher/Ollman Gallery in Philadelphia, further cementing Alan’s growing international profile.
Although not a collaboration in the traditional sense, the project provided an opportunity to present two processbased artists who both work from the readymade. The result was a project with very different visual outcomes. The Polaroid boxes I created were fastidiously crafted and painted to replicate exactly the colour and scale (to the millimetre) of the original packaging. Minus text and incidental imagery, they amplified the abstract qualities of the boxes, allowing a space for viewers to trigger their own memories and narratives related to the Polaroid product. On the other hand, Alan’s cameras emphasised the handmade, intensifying and celebrating the imperfections associated with the human touch. None were perfect, nor exactly to scale, but it was exactly these qualities that resonated with and engaged audiences. The original Polaroid cameras were all standard black, but Alan chose various coloured glazes for his versions; they ranged from black to red, gold and pewter. Each carefully glazed camera provided a further shift away from the original, precise, pristine machine.
