Jeff Wall, known for his epic large-scale photographs which often document moments that exist somewhere between staged and documentary styles, is currently showing at White CubeWhite Cube in Mason’s Yard, London. The images are new and recent, and many are a departure from the Canadian artist’s typical work. Weightlifter shows a built man in black and white, lifting a heavy set. As the gallery mentions, this image brings together a dramatic grey palette with a near-documentary style, intriguingly teetering on the edge of two different genres. “The lifting of heavy objects recalls the most archaic forms of labour and the permanent subjection of life to the force of gravity,” says the gallery. “The sport of weightlifting enacts that archaism, detached from any practical purpose and absorbed in private ambition.”
