Corrected Masterpieces

“We like the idea of making something ridiculous, clowning with it, by depicting banal things… a banana is as funny as a sausage, they are immediately recognisable things… Bottecelli’s Venus is a stunning image, but we have always hated Venus herself in this image, so we have obscured her with a banana” — Antoni + Alison

British Duo Alison Roberts and Antoni Burakowski are also perhaps better known as the London-based fashion designers Antoni + Alison whose work is worn and admired internationally. They met over 30 years ago at Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design and have worked together ever since.

Their work has a British sense of humour with an appealing mischievous sensibility that doesn’t relate to fashion, but is based on their own exploration of ideas and experiences.

However successful their clothes and accessory designs may be, Roberts and Burakowski are primarily fine artists who have exhibited their photography internationally within the museum and gallery sector and have subsequently become famous for their photographic prints of recurring themes and symbols, such as magical images of sweet faced creatures, cakes, cigarettes, potatoes and raw meat (food plays a key role) which decorate their images.

Both self taught photographers, they use only natural sunlight and always photograph their tableaux or collages plein air developing the medium as a highly personal art form.

As Burakowski explains “our work isn’t about trends. We are about putting together two things that should never meet. They shouldn’t work or fit, but once you place them there, somehow they do.” As we see in their Corrected Masterpiece series depicting a famous and familiar Monet image overlaid with a lush organic lettuce, a Fragonard with the addition of confectionary and simply a sandwich on a Titan. Culminating in a modern twist on familiar classics of art history.

Both perfectionists who are extremely critical of their own work, they believe that there is a need to create these images that buzz around in their heads. “We are compelled to do what we do, we are not trying to be something…we have to work until we get the images absolutely right, they may go through several stages for just one image and ultimately as long as we are happy with it, it’s right.”