Carter’s Leg Model, 2006, serves up an analogy relevant to the majority of the works in this exhibition, titled “And, it, the, constant, although.” In the video, a set of legs walks across the screen, only for one to move aside and reveal the other to be a floundering prosthetic replica. The notion of the double or copy becomes a significant motif in this current body of work and highlights similar themes in Carter’s Polaroids, which are also on view and date from 2004 to 2006.
Two sculpted heads, both titled Likeness, 2009, sit on plinths at either end of the gallery, turned away from each other as if participating in some sort of passive showdown, linked by a track of carpet that runs across the floor between the pair. Here, Carter’s similar works invite direct comparison, while at the same time suggesting they be considered as a whole. Likewise, Constant Abstract (double erect placement with profile), 2009, comprises a diptych of canvas grounds layered with digital prints on which Carter has drawn and painted. The two are broadly alike but fundamentally different in their details, an approach that resonates with the graphical nature of Carter’s practice. Other works such as Untitled (area), 2009, apply this same aesthetic and suggest a Pop-art affinity with the multiple, as well as a cynicism toward the way in which Pop-inflected work is viewed. In these instances, the audience’s engagement becomes about a direct interplay between attention to detail and acceptance of the body of work in its entirety, whether or not pieces are deceptively presented as singular.
