Via Crucis

This print is based on one of Achill Redo’s earliest collages from 1973-4. The juxtaposition of surfaces and forms originally cut from found images point to his longstanding interest in Dada and Surrealism. The original collage was signed ‘Rem Doxfod’, an alias created by the artist Anthony Hill in 1973, which was later shortened to Redo. Hill introduced Rem Doxfod in a special edition of the journal Studio International dedicated to Marcel Duchamp in 1975. [1]

Hill exhibited collages and assemblages attributed to Achill Redo from the 1980s onwards. [2]This created a distinction between these works and the abstract geometric constructed reliefs and prints for which Hill was well known. However, he recognised them as related strands of his expansive creative practice:

‘If I am introduced to someone as being both a Dadaist and Constructivist I don’t have any objections. But making constructivist type works doesn’t mean that I am a signatory or member of any constructivist outfit. Likewise with Dada: I don’t do Redos in order to get labelled Dada, nor are Redos done in the shadow of Dada. Redos are Formalist, although in a different way from the constructive works I make.’ [3]

Redo’s carefully balanced handling of form and tone in the collage Via Crucis parallels the tight composition of Hill’s abstract geometric reliefs and prints.

The Via Crucis print was produced in 1983, coinciding with an exhibition of Redo’s work at Angela Flowers Gallery in London. The eclectic exhibition catalogue includes the following description of the print:

‘One of the earliest Redo’s (signed Rem Doxfod) is the “Via Crucis” (1973-74) which turned out to exploit a theme used by Man Ray in his “Monument a D.F. Sade” – this collage has been realized as a print by Editions Media, Neuchatel, one of a number of erotological works most of which were later destroyed by a crazed studio assistant with strong religious scruples.’ [4]

Lisa Newby, March 2021

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