FAMULUS

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Series of two C-Type prints on Kodak Endure Paper, 36cm x 24cm, 2015

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Famulus is a photographic series inspired by the life of sculptor and co-collector of the Garman Ryan Collection, The New Art Gallery Walsall, Sally Ryan. A Protégé of Jacob Epstein, Sally is greatly overlooked in the history of the collection, existing as an illusive, almost vanished, female figure. Each image is created by ink washing archival slide negatives of Sally, highlighting the elegant positioning of her hands. This echoes the gesture in magical illusions in which the hand stands in for the presence of a body particularly in vanishing tricks. Famulus is the name for a magician’s assistant; both mystical and derogatory it responds to Sally’s overshadowing by Epstein.