MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
Subtly and without neat punchlines, this exhibition slowly drags into view an embedded history of the African people who came to Britain
With detailed studies of flaking, iron-blooded rock, printed at monumental scale Ingrid Pollard directs our thoughts to the bigger picture. The title of her show, Carbon Slowly Turning, might describe the motion of the spinning Earth, with you, me, the trees and other carbon-based life upon it.
But Pollard’s urge to revisit and remix art made across four decades also makes me think of a compost heap – in a good way. The show concludes with some of her oldest work – body shots from 1991 articulating lesbian experience – alongside her most recent, looking at pride, propaganda and national identity. It’s as though Pollard is constantly turning her pile of leaves, pulling old material through new, to see what mycelium it might generate.
