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Work Type:	video
Date of work:	1998
Materials:	medium: video
Measurements:	duration: 1
Style Period:	contemporary art
Subject:	identity, representation, culture
Technique:	video

Description:	Square Head, Pale Face is a pastiche of early anthropological film. Francis Summers explores themes raised by the problematic photography of Edward Curtis who documented North American Indians at the beginning of this century; he manufactured the myth of the Indian image bringing props with him to alter the reality he found. To deal with this issue, Summers acts as both the observer and the observed, acting as the Indian and as Curtis. [MORE] [LESS] Square Head, Pale Face is a pastiche of early anthropological film. Francis Summers explores themes raised by the problematic photography of Edward Curtis who documented North American Indians at the beginning of this century; he manufactured the myth of the Indian image bringing props with him to alter the reality he found. To deal with this issue, Summers acts as both the observer and the observed, acting as the Indian and as Curtis.

Source:	From a series of conversations held at different times between Keith Tyson, Sacha Craddock and Simon Morrissey and between Susan Hiller, Sacha Craddock and Des Lawrence. “New Contemporaries 99”, exhibition catalogue, Manchester, 1999.

Date of source:	1999