Ian White's Posthumous Exhibition at Camden Arts Centre Explores His Collaborative and Elusive Art Practice

Ian White's posthumous exhibition 'Any frame is a thrown voice' at Camden Arts Centre in London from 19 April to 24 June 2018 showcases his multifaceted work as an artist, writer, curator, and teacher, who died in 2013. The show features documentation of performances and restagings of multimedia installations, highlighting his playful engagement with textuality, theatricality, and materiality. A key piece, 'Democracy' (2009–10/2018), involves a slideshow of random photos and videos of White's performance, accompanied by the BBC World Service, with visitors becoming unwitting performers. Collaborations with Jimmy Robert are central, including a reworked version of their 2004 performance '6 things we couldn’t do, but can do now' presented as drawings, photographs, and writings. Another work, 'The Neon Gainsborough' (2002–03/2018), originally performed at Cubitt Gallery in London, juxtaposes Thomas Gainsborough's art with wry video observations. White's notebooks with blacked-out text and typed anecdotes, such as one about Karl Lagerfeld's disdain for archives, are displayed. The exhibition includes references to Yvonne Rainer's choreography 'Trio A' (1978) and notes on rehearsal processes, like hiding nicotine patches. White's writing, scattered throughout, blends intimate anecdotes with critical commentary in digressive sentences. The show reflects on the challenges of capturing his deliberately fragmented and elusive work, which remains relevant in today's digital age.