Not currently on display at the V&A

The Dining Room (Francis Place) (II)

Photograph
1997 (made)
Artist/Maker
Jones, Sarah (photographer)
Place of origin
Great Britain (made)

Sarah Jones was born in London in 1959 and graduated from the MA Photography course at Goldsmiths College in 1996. Jones is among the leading contemporary artists who make carefully staged, large-scale colour photographs. The proportions of her photographs accentuate the relationship between the almost life-size subject and the viewer.
This is a very poised and enigmatic image of adolescent girls in a polished social milieu complete with reflection and averted gazes which chimes with the images of Lady Hawarden from the nineteenth century.


Object details

Categories
Photographs
Access_to_Images 2003
Object type
Photograph
TitleThe Dining Room (Francis Place) (II) (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
c-type colour print
Photographic Paper
Brief description
Jones, Sarah; The Dining Room, (Francis Place) (II), 1997, C-type on aluminium
Physical description
C-type photograph of three girls around a dinner table in a dining room, two ofthem looking at a blue and white ceramic vesel on the table. A painting of a man hangs on the wall behind them.
Dimensions
  • Print width: 150cm
  • Print height: 150cm
Gallery label
  • Making It Up: Photographic Fictions (2018) Marta Weiss Jones constructs scenes that are inspired both by psychoanalysis and history of art. Here three adolescent girls seem poised in reverie in the polished setting of a well-appointed dining room. The emotions implied by their attitudes and the possible symbolic significance of objects in the room, such as the central ceramic dish, are left open to interpretation. The result is mesmeric, yet ultimately enigmatic.
  • Sarah Jones is among the leading contemporary artists who make carefully staged, large-scale colour photographs. The proportions of her images accentuate the relationship between the almost life-size subjects and the viewer. Three adolescent girls seem poised in reverie in the polished setting of a well-appointed dining room. We are left to guess at the emotional states that the girls' attitudes imply, or the possible symbolic meaning of the objects in the room, especially the ceramic dish at the center of the composition. The result is mesmeric yet ultimately enigmatic.(2008-2009)
  • The almost life-size proportions of this carefully staged photograph accentuate the relationship between the viewer and the subject. Three adolescent girls seem poised in reverie in the polished setting of a well-appointed dining room. The emotions implied by their attitudes and the possible symbolic significance of objects in the room, such as the central ceramic dish, are left open to interpretation.(11/08/2011-27/11/2011)
Object history
Historical significance: Sarah Jones is among the leading contemporary artists making carefully staged, large-scale colour photographs. The proportions of her photographs accentuate the relationship between the almost life-size subject and the viewer.
Subjects depicted
Boredom
Dining Rooms
Adolescents
Paintings
Tableaux (Performances)
Summary
Sarah Jones was born in London in 1959 and graduated from the MA Photography course at Goldsmiths College in 1996. Jones is among the leading contemporary artists who make carefully staged, large-scale colour photographs. The proportions of her photographs accentuate the relationship between the almost life-size subject and the viewer.
This is a very poised and enigmatic image of adolescent girls in a polished social milieu complete with reflection and averted gazes which chimes with the images of Lady Hawarden from the nineteenth century.
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.1167-1998

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Record createdSeptember 17, 2003
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O84331/the-dining-room-francis-place-photograph-jones-sarah/
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