2008

Keepers of contemporary identities

Photography is generally thought of as the keeper of family history, the custodian of our dearest memories and people. The four artists in this exhibition all explore identity though their photographic work, from self-discovery to the examination of our immediate environments.

Eva Marosy-Weide is (as most Australians) divided in her sense of belonging, living in NSW and having a strong family bond to Romania. She explores in the ongoing project Sets of Circumstance this dual relationship by surveying her home beside the Manning River in NSW and the constructed idea of her heritage halfway across the world along the Maros (Mures) River in Transilvania. Presented in diptyches, images of these two rivers infer the probing of her identity, her family and her place in the world.

Similarly to Marosy-Weide, Gordon Craig explores his own feelings of dislocation and simultaneously his hopes for the future through his neighbourhood rainbow lorikeet population. These birds mate for life, living in a noisy and bustling community yet keeping their small family unit private and intimate - in the same way we humans seem to go about our lives. Craig's series depicts the rainbow lorikeet couples (and sometimes their one off-spring) in perfect unison in the skies, visually detached from the heavy traffic and danger below. The images of two small birds in harmony at dusk presents us with contemplative and poignant expressions of hope for relationships and familial bonds, surviving and thriving above the chaos of modern life.

Glen Henderson often collaborates with architects and scientists as she considers these two areas to be “barometers of a changing world” where new knowledge is continually expanding and reinterpreted in the spaces we inhabit. The Awakenings series celebrate architecture as “a sequence of experiences orchestrated like a piece of music”, where the abstracted human forms dance within vibrant spaces of coloured light. The work is also strongly linked to our inner anatomy as structured space, where Henderson has “explored her way from nerve cell data to architectural interior”. These works are at once intuitive and meditative, revelling in the emotions and joy of experiencing grand architecture - built and natural.

The works of Patricia Casey also revel in light, portraying her interest in emotional and intellectual stimulation. Human forms are partly revealed from the darkness in rich red and yellow tones and intense blues and violets, creating intimate performances of a ritual nature. These powerful images using the personal and familiar speak broadly to the poetic and introspective in us all.