Drive By

Ian Phillips McLaren (b. 1960) is a British contemporary artist, his varied practice combines contemporary and 19th century photographic processes, video, sculpture, performance and animation.

His body of work examines dementia as a state of being, memory, personal identity and the construction of self in our visual culture, portraiture and self-representation.

Ian’s current work, The ‘Self’ & The ‘Other’ is an exploration of the ‘Self’ through the lens of ancient Roman portraiture – The ‘Other’ referring to the ways in which identities are formed.

“By combining traditional 5×4 inch analogue paper negatives of my self with hybrid digital negatives of ancient Roman portraits and fragments, I’m re-imagining the historical self-portrait, in a similar vein to how the Romans re-imagined (Hellenistic) Greek art for their own purposes”.

The ‘Drive By’ series was set in motion after Phillips McLaren impulsively jumped into his car to chase a thunder storm.

From the safety of his car, he pointed his lens through a wet, rainy windscreen, parts of the car interior and exteror inevitbly crept into the edges of the frame, rather than cropping out the defects and retouching the blurred rain drops on the car windscreen, they became part of the image, this set the aesthetic for the rest of the project.

Fine art prints
Most of the images on this website can be purchased as a fine art prints. Email me for details, if you can’t find your image in the shop.