Artists Statement

Ian Phillips McLaren is a British artist; his practice combines contemporary and 19th century photographic techniques, audio and sculpture. Process is key to understanding both his work and the transformation that it has undergone. “The distance between professional photographer and artist was not a space that I expected to traverse. Yet here I am”.

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.

His current work is an investigation of the inner ‘self’ through a Jungian lens, he hand crafted four effigies representing Jung’s four main archetypes (The Persona, Anima/Animus, The Self & The Shadow Self) which, when combined, represent the whole ‘Self’.

Each video-sculpture characterises separate aspects of his identity, performing independently but at the same time, collectively creating a single self-portrait in a three-dimensional environment. These performances range in delivery and dialogue and are designed to engage the viewer on multiple levels.

Phillips McLaren disrupts any emotive response to the piece by revealing the mechanisms of its operation.