Bill Armstrong's triptych of Queen Elizabeth, commissioned by Christopher Hyland, in honor of
the Queen's Jubilee and his collection's exhibition in England during the Jubilee.
and rugs, and books everywhere, spilling out of the cosy library
into the far reaches of the flat. The photographs on view have
their places of honour, however, artfully arranged as you make
your way into the various suites of rooms, a series of chaste
black-and-white arrangements that play against the more
traditional elements of the Greek-revival ensemble Christopher
and Constantino call home.
I choose the word 'chaste' with some care, for although the
collection includes many photographs by arguably transgressive
figures such as Ritts, Mapplethorpe, and Leatherdale, the
actual images by these artists are not intended to shock but
rather to re-orientate the eye. Christopher has written that
he values photographs that express 'the sublime, the exotic,
and the familiar,' but I would twist his description slightly
by emphasizing how often the images he collects have turned
the exotic into the familiar or turned the familiar into the
HYLAND
