Gilbert & George,Gilbert,George, Dark Shadow no. 9, 1974

Gilbert & George
Britain

Gilbert
Britain
1943

George
Britain
1942

Dark Shadow no. 9
1974
nineteen gelatin-silver photographs

Place made: London
Medium: nineteen gelatin-silver photographs
Dimensions: 212.0 x 166.0 cm (overall )
Credit line: South Australian Government Grant 1975
Accession number: 752Ph1(a-s)
Signature and date: Signed and dated in central panel, red ink "George", "Gilbert", and printed in image "...SPRING 1974".
Media category: Photograph
Collection area: European photographs

In the late 1960s, the two artists, Gilbert & George, began to exhibit together, becoming one entity, their identities fused. Rejecting the dominant tradition of sculpture, they became the work of art, presenting ‘Living Sculpture’. Styling themselves as ‘everyman’, in elegant, formal suits, they further emphasised this persona with their mannerisms, which were controlled and almost puppet-like. Their very proper appearance contrasted with their subject matter, which addressed social, sexual and artistic taboos.
Dark Shadow no. 9 belongs to Gilbert & George’s ‘DRINKING SCULPTURE’, from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s, which focused on drinking and depictions of the artists in states of drunkenness or unconsciousness (for example, the film Gordon’s makes us drunk, 1972, and the exhibitions, Reclining drunk, 1973, Drinking sculptures, 1974). In their 1974 artist book, Dark shadow, Gilbert & George describe their art as being about ‘earnest daily thoughts, shadows, deeds, cares and pleasures’. Typically understated, the words don’t quite match the debauched scene documented in this multi-part picture, which shows the artists in their London house, inebriated on the floor, with the detritus of their night around them.
Maria Zagala, Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs