2009

Achromatism- Recent Video work from the ACT is a fine example of curatorial sensitivity on the part of Yolande Norris. The visual parallels established by the selection of works presents us as viewers with conceptual dichotomies that allow us to study the nature of our perception in engaging detail. The screen itself becomes a plane on which we are thrown into 3 dimensions of action- in Benjamin Forster’s Premise: etching flow= Definition, an underlying flow of line is set in motion that constantly redefines itself as it rises up onto the surface; in Taree MacKenzie’s Black Balls on White Surfaces,, floating forms appear and disappear on an ambiguous ground, directed by an unseen force; and in Lucy Quinn’s Vessel Vessel, a window opens that allows us to immerse our senses in a fluid world, which has its own eloquent interactions.

In still photography, the flat plane of the image surface is the inconspicuous nexus between viewer, view and photographer. As such, each surface presents us with the most engaging of conundrums, particularly in the digital age, as we become more sceptical of what we see and more aware of our own limitations in perception. The most engaging works raise questions and challenges about what it is that we are looking at, how the photographer has created the image, and what the images might mean.

In dealing with the seeming banal, such as Amanda Gallagher’s vacant sporting spaces, we immediately question our understanding of what we know to be familiar when such spaces are taken at face value, with their various games in play. The rules of each game and its players are invisible forces that become more palpable by their absence. The lighting, with its affecting colour, adds to the sense of surrealism, and the space becomes a stage with all the potential of imagined human drama played out. The images challenge us to review what we know of such arenas in the light of day and by extrapolation, whether we are the vehicles for Spatial Regulation within the places of our lives.

How does one represent a life and times? Is it by photographing auspicious and momentous occasions? Or is it by recording ordinary hours, as Simon Grant has done in a methodical and exhaustive study of time and activity. In This Hour, the precision of the clock in measuring time belies the erraticism and humility of most human preoccupations and at the same time, challenges our proclivity for picturing ‘experiences’. Such an honest representation is extended in the video works, which capture the simultaneity of ordinary, but voluminous moments and their props, and strangely reinvests our interest in life as it is actually lived.

Walter Stahl extends nature’s sensuality and symmetry in images of lyrical beauty that border on the macabre. Syncopated rhythms of objects and patterns, tonal variations and linear movement reflect the references to music and sound in the work. In Krautrock, the aesthetic canons of ‘nature photography’ are both embraced and disrupted by a personal and edgy symbology that resonates with the photographer’s mix of cultural conditionings.

Memories and feats, both epic and trifling, are imbedded in Hugh Swingler Manning’s Mythologies. Each myth is related to family members, friends and lovers, whose snapshots contribute to the construction of the classic themes. Conversely, we are reminded that the myths and traits represented are re-enacted again and again in a multitude of humble ways all around us.

The digital shapes created by Lyndal Petzke in the likeness of a variety of hats reminds us of photography’s potential to convey a deceptive illusion of form beyond the surface, one that establishes its indexical nature. Origami Almalgamation provides us with a number of rich indexical facets from which to view the images- historical, technical and cultural. With the appearance of being woven from straw, on closer inspection the hats reveal a repetition of folded shapes of origami. Each ‘hat’ indexes a time and culture, with all the potent interpretations of power and place. Yet, each is a construction, whereby the photographer has applied all the intent of the sculptor in presenting us with beautiful forms for contemplation.

Virginia Miller uses the actual forms of box templates as framing devices- literally, by providing the receiving surface, and figuratively, by referencing the concept of containment. The images explore the transient and illusionary surfaces that contradict life in close, urban spaces- spaces that are implied by the very nature of the box. We are offered both a problem and a solution, an expose of Horizon Deficit Syndrome 2 brought about by the lack of open spaces and the claustrophobic conditions of urbanity, and the offer of photographic art and illusion, with its meditative capacity to transform and delight.

Victoria Garnons-Williams, PhD