Past Exhibitions 2010
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 12 –29 August
Coastal Comfort is Suzie Edwards’ second solo exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY. Like the first, Please don’t send me home in 2007, Suzie has drawn on aspects of her life to tell an apparently familiar story. But it is told in a way that represents the complexity of coastal life. Here we see ‘the coast’ through the eyes of an imaginative and enquiring artist.
In the Please don’t send me home catalogue I wrote:
'As Gallery and Visual Arts Coordinator at the Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Suzie Edwards is accustomed to helping other artists present their work. She is also a teacher and curator, and has been a notable contributor to group exhibitions in Canberra for more than a decade. Considering the quality and consistency of her creative achievements it is surprising that Please don’t send me home is her first solo exhibition.
Please don’t send me home is a rich and powerful evocation of a nostalgic, but surprisingly optimistic, return home. Suzie Edwards’ quietly beautiful images of places that were full of people and industry in her childhood contrast with 1950s and 60s images made by her father at a time when the cement works were the heart of Portland life. Together they contradict the impression most of us would have of the awfulness of living and growing up in an industrial landscape.'
Please don’t send me home was also shown in Bathurst and Broken Hill following its HUW DAVIES GALLERY showing.
Since 2007 Suzie has continued her contribution to PhotoAccess and other group exhibitions, she continues to support artists through her work at Tuggeranong and she continues to draw inspiration from regular visits to the New South Wales South Coast town of Merimbula. Like the images in Please don’t send me home this new work brings to the wall and screen the pleasant and the unpleasant, the sunny and the dark dimensions of the coast—the squabbling, freewheeling aerobatics of seagulls, a kite flying high above a rock platform pounded by waves, a study of corpses: mutton birds dead from the exhaustion of battling storms in the course of their epic migration and discovered on a beach on Anzac Day 2008.
Edwards’ use of several capture techniques has allowed her to create a range of moods. The Holga based images are atmospheric and beautiful. The digital work is sharp and full of detail. Edwards says the screen based work is ‘… about rhythms—the constant comfort that comes from routine. I notice the ‘small things’ down the coast such as the way the gentlest of breezes catches the curtains.’
Suzie Edwards was a 2000 artist in residence when PhotoAccess was in its original premises in Kingsley Street. She was an artist in residence again in 2007 in our new home at the Manuka Arts Centre. This thoughtful exhibition is another major accomplishment for Suzie and we are very pleased to share it with visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 22 July–8 August
Each year we select graduates from the Canberra Institute of Technology and the ANU School of Art for PhotoAccess emerging artist residencies. The intention is to assist those artists, mostly young and with limited exhibition experience, to develop and present new work in HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions. The residency projects can involve mentoring, courses, access to facilities and equipment and, towards the end of each residency, exhibition opportunities in solo or group shows. The exhibitions are assisted by funding under the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy.
From the 2009 CIT graduating year we offered Jamila Toderas and Holly Treadway residencies and, unusually, both accepted. Holly’s exhibition 'sticks and stones' is showing alongside Jamila’s in the first emerging artists exhibition by CIT graduates for some years. We hope others will follow their lead. Jamila and Holly are showing new work made specifically for these exhibitions.
Jamila Toderas has an unusual, dark vision. Her graduating show work was a series of dramatic self portraits suggesting fear and alienation. The 'In my nightmares' work takes those emotions further, moving into areas most feared by young people and their parents alike: the fear of harm from madness, societal pressures, familiar seen (killer clowns?) and unseen demons, and self abuse. Toderas and her characters sleep in fear, wake in fear, lose themselves in fearful, alienating rooms and landscapes, and they bleed. Toderas’ work, as she says in her Artist Statement, ‘… shows the depths of darkness hidden in my eccentric soul’.
These are carefully staged images, continuing Toderas’ early interest in creating the subjects for her work including, in particular, costumed family pets. Bonnie is an early example. A close examination of the images in this exhibition, Lost and Circus bloodshed, for example, shows how far she has travelled from the days of dressing Bonnie as a cheerful clown. Her imagination and command of craft mark Jamila Toderas as a young artist of great promise.
PhotoAccess is proud to have helped bring Jamila Toderas’ work to a wider Canberra audience through a 2010 emerging artist residency and her 'In my nightmares' exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 22 July–8 August
Each year we select graduates from the Canberra Institute of Technology and the ANU School of Art for PhotoAccess emerging artist residencies. The intention is to assist those artists, mostly young and with limited exhibition experience, to develop and present new work in HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions. The residency projects can involve mentoring, courses, access to facilities and equipment and, towards the end of each residency, exhibition opportunities in solo or group shows. The exhibitions are assisted by funding under the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy.
From the 2009 CIT graduating year we offered Holly Treadway and Jamila Toderas residencies and, unusually, both accepted. Jamila’s exhibition, 'In my nightmares', is showing alongside Holly’s in the first emerging artists exhibition by CIT graduates for some years. We hope others will follow their lead. Holly and Jamila are showing new work made specifically for these exhibitions.
Holly Treadaway works as a freelance photographer in the ACT and Southern Highlands. She spent three years at The Canberra Times as a photojournalist and had responsibility for photography in other publications, including The Canberra Chronicle, The Queanbeyan Age, The Canberra Centre Magazine, See Canberra Magazine, and Summer in the City Magazine.
Earlier this year Holly embarked on a personal photographic journey through Laos and Vietnam. Her first solo exhibition Watching You Watching Me is currently showing at Café Yala, Reid CIT campus.
Holly Treadaway’s 'sticks and stones' is autobiographical, with its roots in the memory of her early years. It is a physical and emotional revisiting of the places and feelings she experienced growing up on the land at Burra, out of Canberra.
Using a model to suggest a reflective, idyllic adolescence, Holly recreates the atmosphere and quiet joy of a life which was at times resented but now, reconsidered, approaches perfection. The calm of this young Holly Treadaway does seem in conflict with the rambunctious life she recounts in her Artist Statement, but it is the big memories that ultimately matter and the taunts and isolation she sometimes experienced now take a lowly position in her evaluation of her early life.
PhotoAccess is proud to have helped bring this story by Holly Treadaway, an exciting young artist, to a wider Canberra audience through the 2010 emerging artist residency and her 'sticks and stones' exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 29 April–16 May
We saw Katie Ryan’s Mi Amistad in the 2009 Graduating Exhibition in the ANU School of Art’s Photospace. The work had immediate appeal because of its beautifully drawn characters and places and engaging storyline. The music, composed and recorded by Sam Smith, complemented the images and a cleverly constructed ambient sound track.
‘Mi Amistad’ (‘My Friendship’) explores the simple friendship between children that can reach beyond cultures but can also be lost as hard reality breaks apart playful fantasies.
Katie accepted our invitation to show Mi Amistad in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY Multimedia Room and we were delighted to be able to show it to coincide with this year’s members show, Access all areas 2010.
We were also been pleased Katie agreed to assist us this year with an important digital storytelling project for Mental Illness Education ACT.
Katie Ryan’s Mi Amistad is a sensitive, beautiful work, and PhotoAccess is very pleased to share it with a wider Canberra audience through this showing in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 1–18 July
In 2009 PhotoAccess partnered with Billabong Aboriginal Corporation to provide skills and creative development opportunities for local Indigenous photographers. The project was supported by the ACT Government’s Strategic Indigenous Arts Development Initiative. Jennifer Martiniello was the coordinator for Billabong Aboriginal Corporation and Ed Whalan was the teacher and coordinator for PhotoAccess.
'4 Emerging Indigenous Photographers' is an exhibition by participants in that project and our third NAIDOC Week exhibition by emerging Indigenous photographers. It continues the longer program of NAIDOC Week exhibitions, including projects leading to exhibitions of digital stories, begun in 2006 and assisted under the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy.
The most striking feature of this exhibition is the diversity of subject interests shown by the artists, perhaps unsurprising considering their ages and backgrounds. Nic Radoll and Tyrell Kamira Sams are 15 year old school boys. Lyndy Delian and Jo Kamira are mothers with successful careers in the arts, law enforcement and business. The unifying thread is the contemporary, fresh and adventurous approach they bring to making photographs and their obvious love of colour. Some images reflect subjects and colours generally associated with Indigenous places and issues, and many do not. The artists share thoughts on photography and their motivation in the brief statements that follow. I hope we will hear and see more work from them in future PhotoAccess members and other exhibitions.
PhotoAccess is proud to present '4 Emerging Indigenous Photographers' for NAIDOC Week 2010 and acknowledges the support of the ACT Government, Billabong Aboriginal Corporation and Stephen Best from Macquarie Editions in presenting this exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 11 –27 June
Esperanza
In a widely reported story released on 10 May 2010, AAP seemed to sum up the media’s main interest in the protest:
'The captain of a Greenpeace ship has been fined about $8,000 over a protest that shut down a Queensland coal terminal, costing BHP millions of dollars. But Esperanza captain Vladimir Votiacov escaped a conviction for his role in last year's blockade, which forced the closure of the Hay Point coal terminal south of Mackay for 36 hours … At the time of the protest in August last year, the Queensland Resources Council said the protest had cost taxpayers about $1 million a day in royalties, and BHP about $13 million a day. The ship blockade coincided with protests by individuals at Hay Point, and another coal terminal at Abbot Point. Fifteen activists have already faced court over their actions. They pleaded guilty and were fined'.
Because Belinda Pratten was there to document it we have another view entirely of what the Esperanza (Spanish for ‘hope’) was doing in the waters off Mackay on 5 August 2009, and the actions, motivation and personalities of the people on board. This exhibition, and other exhibitions of the images in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, helps bridge the gap between the media’s preoccupation with business interests and the punishment of dissenters, and the message of people who have a need to voice their concerns through protest.
Belinda Pratten’s work as a photographer and filmmaker has taken her to many places, physically and emotionally—managing the pictures bureau for the Australian Financial Review, documenting the release of rehabilitated orangutans in Borneo’s Meratus forests, assignments for Greenpeace, teaching in Brewarrina and at the Canberra Institute of Technology. The face we most often see is through the multitude of always intriguing and beautifully made entries in PhotoAccess group exhibitions and Belinda’s memorable 1994 The Surfer in the PhotoAccess 25th Anniversary Print Portfolio.
So at last we have a solo HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibition from Belinda Pratten. It’s a compelling look at the Abbot and Hay Point protests, dramatic and full of action but also revealing of the personalities of the protestors and the ship that allowed them to get so close. Esperanza is a very fine example of documentary photography and an exhibition we are proud to present in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
Stephen Best from Macquarie Editions printed the works and sponsored the exhibition, profits from which will be donated by Belinda to Greenpeace.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 20 May–6 June
Margaret Kalms has used her education in photography and applied sciences in a number of areas, including as a Geographic Information Systems Officer making computer based maps; she has photographed public art for the ACT Government’s arts data base, and people enjoying ACT parks for its Get Out There brochure. She has also worked as a baby photographer in hospitals around Canberra and Queanbeyan.
Kalms has shown in many group exhibitions over the past few years. Most of her work is informed by issues confronting women, including body image and health issues. She has a website where she shares her work and thoughts, providing information and commentary aiming to give women a positive image of their bodies. Special concerns are menstruation and helping women to know more about their bodies and sexuality. 'Period Piece' is her first solo exhibition.
Blood is used by artists to shock and disturb. Performance artists use blood in work centred on violent ritual, including self-mutilation. Visual artists use the force and colour of blood to draw the eye to tragic or murderous events. A group of American women make art from their own blood and share the results and their thoughts on the web.
There is no plan to shock or disturb in Margaret Kalms’ work. The images in 'Period Piece' are a quietly reflective, somewhat wry and considered essay on the many aspects of menstruation, in particular the pain and indignity experienced by women. The motivating force for Kalms’ work is her humanist and religious principles. As she says on her website:
'Because I am a Christian, I am motivated by the conviction that we are “Fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14) created by God in a beautiful and intricate way. When God made each part of creation he said “It was good” (Genesis chapters 1 & 2).'
Kalms refers to her models as naked, but because they are clothed with meaning they are far removed from our usual understanding of nudity. As she says:
'The subtle eroticism and sexuality are used to express what being a woman means and feels like, with a focus on what menstruation means and feels like in emotional and philosophically symbolic terms.'
PhotoAccess is very pleased to show Margaret Kalms’ 'Period Piece' in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 20 May–6 June
After last year’s very successful visit to Bundanon and the enthusiastic urging of members we decided to take to the high country this year for a second group excursion. While some who had expressed interest in the excursion absented themselves overseas, an unnecessarily extreme measure to avoid the trip, a group of intrepid long time and new members headed for Thredbo on 26 March.
Led by the inestimable Barbie Robinson and the well organised Ed Whalan, the group walked the mountains around Thredbo for a couple of days, collapsing nightly into the comfort of the River Inn, making photographs and, if Ed’s remarkable 'Group portrait panorama' tells us anything about it, having a lot of fun. The weekend included Ed’s two lighting workshops, one using the Bowen’s Lighting Kit and another with off camera flash.
Hence this exhibition, a small sample of the many images people made over the weekend. Perhaps its most pleasing aspect is the number of new members who are showing work with us for the first time. Most members have been brave enough to give us some words about themselves and their interests for this catalogue; those who haven’t have been unnecessarily modest.
Unsurprisingly, the focus for much of the work has been the spectacular landscape of the region—the beautiful river images by Lisa Holmes and Geoffrey May are good examples. Peter Bryan’s 'Smoko' is a strong work showing two young workers taking a break from serving others. And there is humour: Helen Murphy’s 'Goggles' (who are those people in the lens?), Angela Rymer’s 'Skybike' and Monique Butselaar’s 'Diva Duck' among them. Only Barbie Robinson and Tara McCamley suggest there may be a dark side to Thredbo. The picturesque Ed Whalan himself has attracted the interest of Susan Henderson, Tony Stewart and Andrée Lawrey (in her omnibus reminder of the weekend).
Karen Dace seems to echo the feelings people have expressed about the Thredbo trip:
'I have always enjoyed taking photographs and decided to become more involved in photography last year … I have found my passion in photography. Going to Thredbo with PhotoAccess and a group of like minded people has been a huge highlight for me. It was a fabulous trip and I look forward to more.'
Barbie Robinson coordinated the visit and this HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibition—the second coming out of a regular program of weekends away. Details of next year’s weekend away will be announced towards the end of 2010.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 8 April–23 April 2010
Marie Lund has a long history of involvement in the arts—as a photographer, painter and mixed media artist, and as an art educator. Her resume only hints at her work in solo and group exhibitions, publications and teaching. She has been a member of many professional and community associations in Canberra and elsewhere, including PhotoAccess, Canberra Photographic Society and the MultiFocus group of photomedia artists.
Marie recently left Canberra for the (presumably) calmer environs of the New South Wales South Coast, but continues to show work in PhotoAccess group exhibitions and, now, in this solo exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY. Her first PhotoAccess solo exhibition was Chocolate Box Pictures in 1997 in our Kingsley Street premises.
An inveterate traveller, Marie has shared images from her annual visits to central Europe with Canberra audiences for many years. Simple Alchemy is something of a departure from the beautiful landscapes and streetscapes we are used to seeing in her name. As she says in her Artist Statement
Simple Alchemy is a group of photograms, created without a camera, generated by either sunlight or tungsten light illumination. It is the process of experimentation that interests me, where the joy of creation tales over the desire for perfection.
This is a very productive departure for Marie. It brings together her interest in photographic processes and her wider fascination with creative media. Obviously control of the technical means of creation is happily subsumed to the prospect of a chance effect, the sometimes more interesting than expected outcome that can come from making images direct to paper and, even more chancy, taking them out of the darkroom. The making of photograms seems to fit very cleanly with Marie’s instinctive approach to making art in nature.
Simple Alchemy was first shown last year at the Shoalhaven Arts Centre Gallery in Nowra. Unfortunately for us some of the images were sold and, therefore, not available for this exhibition. We have chosen to reproduce a few of those images in the catalogue to give visitors a wider context for the body of work Marie has called Simple Alchemy.
PhotoAccess is very pleased to show Marie Lund’s Simple Alchemy in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 29 April–16 May
Image: Reflective Canal, by Tim Anger, winner 2009 Peoples Choice Award
With 139 works by 69 members, Access all areas 2010 has again eclipsed all previous members show participation records. Access all areas 2010 represents PhotoAccess in all its diversity.
We are very encouraged by the number of members who are showing for the first time this year, including Ash Peak, Jack Roach, Jillian Batri, Karen O’Connor, Holly Treadaway, Chris Taylor, Jane Greagg, Aart Groothuis, Monique Butselaar, James Roberts, Ann-Maree Hanratty, Jack Paterson, Daniel Nugent, Paul Lau, July Williams, Mihir Mahajan, Ann Robb, Tricia Woodhouse and Jo Wright.
We have an expanded group of young members (under 20s) in this year’s show. Jack Roach gives us a glimpse into abandoned places he has explored; Jack Paterson has placed himself, friends and family in images commenting on the unfair stereotyping of teenagers; Eric Mandl’s beautiful images show the dance of fire; Mihir Mahajan raises questions (fairly or unfairly?) about his mother’s eyesight.
The continuing involvement of artists who have had solo HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions is particularly pleasing. They include Kerry Baylor, Stephen Best, Ian Copland, Suzie Edwards, Bronwyn Jewell, Marie Lund, Payal Sehgal Mahajan, Dan O’Day, Barbie Robinson, Lorna Sim, Tony Stewart and Ed Whalan. Several members showing in Access all areas 2010 have exhibitions coming up in the next few months, including Tim Anger, Ian Copland, Suzie Edwards, Julie Garran, Margaret Kalms, Holly Treadaway (Holly is a 2010 emerging artist in residence) and Belinda Pratten.
Also included in the show are board members and advisers (Bob Burne, Lisa Holmes, Kate Luke, Dan O’Day, Belinda Pratten, Tony Stewart); staff members; tutors—Richard Scherer in particular; and volunteers (including Ann-Maree Hanratty and Andrée Lawrey).
The quality of prints this year is arguably the highest we have seen since digital images overtook dark room prints.
Christine Rufflet, Stephen Best, Ed Whalan, Lorna Sim, Alex Moffatt, Jillian Batri, Kate Luke, Dan O’Day, Steve Lovegrove, Julie Garran and Jo Wright are amongst the members who have given us particularly interesting images for this year’s show.
Engaging and challenging work has become the standard for PhotoAccess members shows, and Access all areas 2010 continues the tradition.
David Chalker
Director
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 18 March–4 April
Lorna Sim’s images are always strikingly beautiful and meticulously composed; her creative skills are reflected in the many awards she has received in recent years. Lorna’s work has been seen in PhotoAccess and other group exhibitions and small solo shows, but this is her first solo exhibition in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
When we discussed the idea of an exhibition with Lorna we had in mind the work we were familiar with—dancers, portraits, atmospheric street scenes, interiors and landscapes. We were unprepared for the images she showed us. The Trucking images had immediate dramatic impact and showed a coherent, unusual vision. Clearly they came out of a deep fascination for the subject. As an artist in residence Lorna was able to consult with us to develop the series and the exhibition came together quickly in collaboration with Stephen Best of Macquarie Editions, who optimised the impact of the images in beautiful inkjet prints.
Lorna’s career has been dominated by her interest in image making and storytelling. She worked in film and television for some years, and is now a restaurateur and very busy photographer.
Trucking is a powerful statement about the industry and, although we don’t see them, the men and women it involves. Sim experiences obvious trepidation when she gets up close to the massive machines but she is intrigued by the people inside them and the lives they live. The placement of trucks on the road and the landscape setting point to emotional responses: threatened; the excitement of the journey; admiration for a long distance driver heading off into a long night; the truckie as a modern day working hero. There are wet days (which she particularly likes as subject matter), the portent and imminent challenge of heavy skies, long stretches of road and helpful signposts to give physical context to the journey.
Considering Lorna Sim’s interest in the people involved in or affected by the trucking industry it was fitting that the exhibition should be dedicated to the late Bob Knight, whose accidental death last year shocked everyone.
We are delighted to present Lorna Sim’s Trucking in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 25 February –14 March
Lannon Harley is an experienced photojournalist, but he has limited exhibition experience. He has not had a solo exhibition until now. Without the Huw Davies Gallery exhibition program it is unlikely he would have had a solo exhibition in Canberra, and we would have missed the very fine images he shares with us in Capital—Volume 1.
While he characterises himself as a photojournalist, in Capital—Volume 1 Harley has moved well away from the tradition of reportage that is the main meal of his profession. In his artist statement Harley suggests that this work documents the times in which his images were made. It is tempting to ignore the suggestion and simply consider the work against the formalist principles of colour, line, shape and texture. On that assessment Lannon Harley’s work is striking, beautifully composed and dramatic. Canberra is a dark place dominated by the strong linearity of modernist buildings, deep shadows and foreboding skies.
Is the global financial crisis really over? Lannon Harley thinks it is and tells us that the last images he made, in September 2009, contain the evidence. I’m not so sure the people in these images, minimal and enigmatic, shadowy characters emerging from even darker shadows, look any more light hearted than those in the others. Canberrans weighed down by their city and the burden of national government. Whatever interpretation you put on it there is a force at work in the images that speaks of Canberra as a serious place with big concerns on a large scale.
Intended or not, some of the places Harley photographed only a short while ago have changed radically—buildings going the way of mortals or perhaps, according to the precepts of contemporary commercial life, the way of buildings in investment driven, plot ratio obsessed urban Australia. What evidence will we have of the architecture of late 20th and 21st Century urban Australia 100 years from now?
Lannon Harley is a PhotoAccess artist in residence for the duration of his Capital project, and has joined our part time teaching staff this year. We are very pleased to present his first solo exhibition, Capital—Volume 1, in the Huw Davies Gallery at the Manuka Arts Centre and we look forward to seeing the work for the following two chapters in his photographic exploration of Canberra in 2011 and 2012.
David Chalker
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 18 December–31 January
Like Sydney born artist Tony Schwensen, an artist he refers to as influencing his work,
TJ Phillipson switches to find the best medium to express his ideas. In 'Semblance' we see TJ Phillipson’s photo media work, but also evidence of his interest in performance.
Phillipson puts himself in the frame in 'Semblance', less obviously than in some of his earlier work but unmistakably as a confused man (is it the drink?) with a lettuce head ('Wet Lettuce'), a man beset by pressure to achieve and make money ('Executive') or the conflicted man with too much on his mind ('Versus'). I’m sure there will be many other interpretations; Phillipson seems to take great pleasure in creating multiple layers of meaning.
TJ Phillipson was selected for an Emerging Artist Support Scheme (EASS) residency at PhotoAccess from last year’s ANU School of Art graduating year. EASS residents are selected on the quality and impact of their work in the end of year show. TJ’s work stood out because of its astonishing visual impact and his full on commitment to making provocative and challenging images. It is pleasing to see that this commitment has not diminished in his year away from art school.
A questioning nature can produce great art or give rise to confusing, incoherent and unengaging work. Phillipson’s musings on the nature and shape of masculinity have given rise to serious images, but also images like 'Calm Waters' and 'Fruity Arm' that engage and amuse us with references that are predictable but juxtaposed in unexpected and clearly ironic ways. Then he drags us back to grim reality with the obvious despair of 'Disparaged' and 'Caved In'. It’s a confusing world, but Phillipson gives us a coherent and engaging meditation on it in 'Semblance'.
A heavy workload producing images for several exhibitions, a short film and honouring commitments as an artist in residence at PhotoAccess and Canberra Contemporary Art Space might have resulted in a less interesting and challenging body of work. It says a lot about TJ Phillipson’s maturity as an artist that 'Semblance' is a strong and intriguing exhibition. PhotoAccess is very pleased to share his work with visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY at the Manuka Arts Centre.
David Chalker
This year we are offering members three opportunities to show work in group exhibitions, allowing them to see and think about their images alongside the work of experienced and not so experienced artists.
Holiday Snaps is the first of those opportunities. This is a postcard show aiming to evince (we had assumed) happy memories of holidays past. Looking at the range of work members have presented it’s clear we should not have assumed the images would be uniformly cheery and light hearted. Nevertheless, we are very happy members have taken up the idea of an informal and inexpensive exhibition opportunity with great enthusiasm. And that there is such a good spread of subject matter and technique.
Some members have holidayed far away, sharing a mix of exotic places and faces with us in Holiday Snaps. The serious purpose of Tony Stewart’s holidays, for example, is evident in his images arising from a long time interest in the social effects of major dam building projects in parts of rural India. Then there is Richard Scherer’s enigmatic reflections and advertising poster SEBASTIAN ® PROFESSIONAL; what are you telling us Richard? As usual, Andrée Lawrey offers us beautiful, thoughtful images, as have Scott Hannaford, Lorna Sim and Ed Whalan. Alan Charlton’s series speaks of an obviously happy holiday on the New South Wales North Coast. There is plenty to admire and ponder in Holiday Snaps.
Our solution to the always challenging curatorial problem of ordering and placing images was made easier by that remarkable invention of our forefathers, the alphabet. But to avoid the stigma of always coming last for the ‘w’, ‘x’ ,’y’ and ‘z’s we reversed the order for this hang, hoping not to add to the troubles of members with ‘alphabetical order’ phobia.
With around 500 images from 52 participants, Holiday Snaps has repeated the ‘bigger and better’ trend of members shows over the past few years. We are very pleased to welcome so many first time artists to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY—including Tricia Woodhouse, Gabriel Spira, Anna Saboisky, Anne Rosenzweig, Karen O’Connor, Isa Menzies, Judith McDougal, Leanne McCauley, Jane Greagg, Jane Dalton, Karen Dace, Tom Cliff, Phil Carter, Monique Butselaar, James Bond, Gail Barton and Catherine Bannister.
The two remaining group show opportunities for members are Access all areas (The PhotoAccess Members Show) from 20 May to 6 June and HIY (Hang it yourself) 2010 from 2 to 19 September. We look forward to seeing strong member representation in these shows as well.
We thank members for offering their images for sale and for donating a second copy of each to help with our fundraising.
David Chalker
