Yong Street, Willowdale

Robin Collyer has focused on urban photography since 1992. His pictures are familiar at first glance, but emanate a feeling of oddity. This is because the artist has digitally removed every text in the environments photographed. By eliminating all meaning and function from these mass communication systems (panels, posters and newspapers), the artist condemns the visual pollution that victimises his contemporaries, and demonstrates the supremacy of signs and writing in the urban space. Through a minimalist gesture, he thus transforms books, boxes and kiosks into sculptures, echoing his initial calling as a visual artist.