Francesca Woodman @ Ingleby Gallery

Posthumous 1986 touring exhibition ‘Francesca Woodman, Photographic Work’ marked the first point of widespread public awareness for the work of the eponymous American artist. The published body of Woodman’s prints – some two hundred, out of an archive of eight hundred - has since remained a hot bed for critical and art historical posturing. This small collection of both vintage prints, a selection of which are currently on show at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Artist Rooms, and prints re-released in editions of 40 by the artist’s estate, a curated selection of which are here presented by the Ingleby, is not only drenched with the critical residue of predominantly feminist debate, but saturated by the artist’s tragic biographical circumstance. The 22-year-old’s 1978 suicide interrupted a nine-year period of making – an epithet that undoubtedly prefaces our engagement with the works.

The theorising of feminine subjectivity that took place in the art discourses of the 1980s, secured the relevant recall of 1970s art by women. It can be argued that the work of the late 70s consequently suffers under such codification, but Woodman’s works, whilst coloured by the critical theories that they have evoked, present a particularly strong resistance to canonisation. As exemplified by Lynne Cooke’s critically acclaimed 2008 DCA exhibition Ellipsis, the first joint exhibition of work by 1970s artists Woodman, Chantal Akerman and Lili Dujourie, such re-visitations can make for rich departures. Crucially omitting the ‘F’ word from the gallery interpretation, Ellipsis surpassed the urge to define the artists using the gendered terms of a different age, whilst simultaneously inviting a reappraisal of the works and their contexts. A robust matrix for the discussion of various abstractions and ‘isms’ – 'post’, modern, feminine, surreal, and minimal – this ebullient, tricky collection continues to rouse and intrigue.

The Ingleby’s generous and straight presentation allows for a relatively unfettered view of the works. Wrung of their critical inheritance, these small square black and whites proffer a disquieting effect. Woodman pictures her often-naked body obscured, blurred and imprisoned by dilapidated interiors and furnishings. Merging with her scene, and perpetually refusing the constraints of the frame, Woodman’s technically astute photographs stage palpable torment. Offering an unnerving challenge to both medium and genre, these photographs appear to belie their time of conception: they seem old. Shells, flowers, feathers, dusty attics and mirrors – the archaic stuff of feminine myth, are here fearlessly pictured. And we are faced with what feels like source material, the original ground for the creation of such metaphorical associations. These resilient images thus work to fold, double and divert our expectations – plucky, shining and important works that appear to grow exponentially more interesting with every hang. [Nancy Katz]