Think of England [2000]

Think of England by Martin Parr [2000]

Fine/As-New. Hardcover with dustjacket; 135 pages
Phaidon
1.7 pounds; 7.8 x 0.6 x 11 inches
714839914

Think Of England... the title is a dead giveaway. Parr is describing an England that is in the mind. The England of floral dresses, suburban lawns and seaside sauciness. Every tourist's view of England. Safe, chintzy middle-class or jolly yeoman working-class England with at least one foot in the past. You will look in vain here for grey, wet skies, inner-city problems, genetically modified countryside or an England which is as ruthlessly commercial or as much of a cultural melting pot as the United States. For Parr's England is a fiction, an idea of England. Perhaps an idea of an idea of England. Martin Parr, a thoroughly contemporary artist, is critiquing representation. It can't possibly be true, can it? It's so colourful for a start. One does not readily associate Day-Glo colours with England, except on chocolate boxes or English Tourist Board posters, but that's part of the point.