Queensland

Marian Drew was born in Australia in 1960 and studied visual art at Canberra School of Art from 1980-1984. Then, from 1984-1985 undertook post graduate studies in Experimental Photography at Kassel University, Germany. Since 1986 she has been Senior Lecturer, Photography Art Practice, at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. From 1983 to 2011, Marian Drew has held thirty solo exhibitions in Australia, the United States, France, and Germany. She also participated in group exhibitions in China, Germany, the United States and held over forty curatorial shows. Drew’s work is housed in major public collections such as: National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Gallery of Art, South Australian Art Gallery, and numerous other collections in Australia. The first monograph “Marian Drew Photographs and Video Works”, was published by the Queensland Centre for Photography, in 2006.

Marian Drew Book:
Marian Drew - Photographs + Video works

Artist Statement

“By imitating the historic painted forms of the Still Life genre I aim to lull the viewer into a familiar story, but paint is replaced with photographic verisimilitude and familiar animals with Australian species. The cycles of domestic bliss and bodily provision raise questions about life and death. Through sacrificial ritual, we acknowledge and develop gratitude for our own existence and for our connectedness. Here the self is found in the form of the other, and our conceptual frameworks are laid out for all to see. The sense of who we are, as explored in this work is defined through shared culture.”

“Landscape photographs graph the human light trajectories in the landscape over time. Drawing and photography meet plein air, a sketch of the hand with camera obscura, working to explore landscape as an exchange between projected ideas and the document. Using two identical medium format film cameras I photograph a landscape by moving the cameras on an axis following the horizon of the landscape. This very slow motion pan, films the action or event over several still frames and allows enough time to abandon the camera, enter the landscape and immerse myself, literally, during exposure. When one is in the landscape acting in this way one cannot see the landscape as a panorama in the distance. The image is then formed as part of an exchange that occurs within the landscape and within the camera.”

“Body works explore the body as a dynamic form. The figures rotate for about ten seconds in a sunlit room that is draped with black cloth. Their form is dissolved over the long exposure time. The black cloth references early quasi-scientific efforts to dislocate subject from environment to enhance objective study. Works by scientist photographers such as Etienne Marey and Edward Muybridge, or sociologist photographer Richard Avedon utilized the backdrop to severe the representation of the body from the landscape. Here the relativity of dynamism is being measured, rocks or flesh, dissolve according to their movement and time scale.”

For more information, please visit Marian Drew’s website:
www.mariandrew.com.au