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The Rhubarb Triangle by Martin Parr
The Hepworth Gallery Feb 2016
On a brief visit home to Leeds over the Chinese New Year period, I took the opportunity to visit the exhibition of Martin Parr’s latest project at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. The project is a study of the “The Rhubarb Triangle” which exists in this area of West Yorkshire.
It might be the fact that after living away from West Yorkshire for some 18 years, 8 in the Isle of Man and the past 7 in Hong Kong, but the sight of a project on something so close to home was quite an emotional feeling.
Rhubarb is such a British thing, a fruit that is a vegetable and I grew up (although not exactly in the Rhubarb Triangle) with stories that how when my mum was young that where I house was now situated, was then rhubarb fields as far as the eye could see. My grandparents always had a small rhubarb patch behind the shed (perhaps subconsciously in honor of this fact as it was rarely eaten).
The exhibition was laid out logically clockwise around the room, with the different sections of the rhubarb production on separate walls, Farming (growing), Harvest, Public consumption, Products. All the prints were in the same aspect ratio, with a mix of A2 and some A0 prints – this was the first thing that I picked up on as it is something that was highlighted to me in my first assignment feedback. Keep collection in the same aspect for visual consistency.
What I found most interesting and perhaps reassuring was that Parr’s images are ordinary; they are a compilation of the type of image you would expect in a photo essay, environmental shots, portraits and details. They show the “warts and all” of the apparently hard dirty work of producing commercial rhubarb and here is a closeness to the subject.
I think it is entirely fortuitous that attended this exhibition at this point in the course because it has helped with my understanding of the “distance between us and the camera” and the context of the images.
While Parr is quite obviously a stranger in the rhubarb triangle as I have said above there is closeness to the subject, he has captured the essence of the back-breaking work, this either through his love of rhubarb or interaction with the protagonists.
Also, the context I find these images very common (not a criticism) just because it what I associate with my home in the west riding. If they were viewed by someone here in Hong Kong, for example, they will be full of mystery and unseen detail, in the same way as I see the street markets of Asia.
Bibliography
Bayley, S., Chisholm, K., Killen, M., Delingpole, J. and Wordsworth, D. (2016) ‘I enjoy the banal’: Stephen Bayley meets Martin Parr. Available at: http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/i-enjoy-the-banal-stephen-bayley-meets-martin-parr/ (Accessed: 6 March 2016).
Cumming, E. (2016) Mysteries of the Rhubarb triangle, revealed by Martin Parr. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jan/31/mysteries-of-the-rhubarb-triangle (Accessed: 6 March 2016).
Parr, M. and Magnum (no date) The Rhubarb triangle and other stories: Photographs by Martin Parr. Available at: http://www.hepworthwakefield.org/martin-parr/ (Accessed: 6 March 2016).