Alongside the Adventures of the Black Square exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery is a complementary show from David Batchelor. Found Monochromes looks at the power and prevalence of advertising and instructive images. I’d seen some of these images, which are empty billboards or signs taken as they are found around the world, at an exhibition put on by Spike Island before I worked for the gallery- in that context Batchelor was also exhibiting pieces which explored his obsession with the presence as well as absence of colour. But I found the setting at Whitechapel – with its bare brick walls, and multiple hanging screens – much more absorbing than at Spike, which just used a simple darkened room. Batchelor has taken 500 images over a number of years, all empty white squares which are waiting for, or possibly recently denuded of, the information they should contain.
What’s most interesting about these square or rectangular images is that they are essentially a visual absence or a void, but in a world saturated with messages they stick out like a sore thumb. They also force you to examine the process of seeing: to look at your own response to notices and billboards, to acknowledge how many of these you see in a day and how many you actually notice. The interesting parallel with the other exhibition is the way that the simplicity of the images makes you really focus on how they make you feel. The absence of superfluous detail concentrates both the eye and the mind. I’m left hoping I find one for myself!
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