Sentimental Journey

by John Berger

Part 1 is a "free" copy of Joseph Wright of Derby's 1781 painting, 'Maria, from Sterne' made by his friend and pupil, Richard Hurlestone, kindly loaned for the exhibition by the Derby Museum and Art Gallery. It shows a young woman in a classical pose of melancholy (clearly based in the original, on Durer), a village girl who has lost her lover, her father, and finally her senses, seated with her dog Silvio, at a water's edge in a picturesque landscape.

Part 2

Part 2 is a Polariod 20x24in photograph. It shows a figure in part of a luxurious and exotic interior, both dressed in extreme contrast and looking in the opposite direction, to the figure in 'Maria, from Sterne' and expressing disdain in the tradition of Comedia del'Arte. She looks in turn, toward part 3, described below.

Part 3

Part 3 is an imaginary panorama of a banal European city centre. Sections from four distinct transparencies of Derby made from immediately outside the entrance to the Derby Museum and Art Gallery, were combined by a Crosfield scanner, and films were generated for the production of a 3M matchprint.

Part 4

Part 4 is a wilfully obscure or ambiguous image, produced by scanning a detail of part 2 and manipulating it on an Archimedes paint-box programme.