Image: Mattresses #5 Sydney, Australia 2013
We don’t have many mattresses in HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions, so it’s a little surprising that two of our exhibitions this year have brought a focus on these most fundamental domestic possessions. Ursula Frederick’s Sleepwalker took an intimate look at mattresses and the detritus of human life, concluding ‘… we are dreamily aware that something is wrong but we haven’t quite woken up to our condition’.
Emilio Cresciani shares Frederick’s concern for the future of our consumption mad, throwaway society, looking at mattresses, television sets, bottles, wire and other dumped material. He says:
'Remains of the Day investigates recycling yards and landfills, the largely unseen machinery of our consumer culture. These vast ‘left over’ landscapes are outside our normal experience but we are involved with them on a daily basis through the products we consume and discard'.
This concern for environment and the effects of unthinking consumption is a welcome counter to the unrelenting proponents of growth, most particularly in business and politics, who regularly refer to Australia as an economy rather than a society, to the effects of decisions and events on GDP rather than the general wellbeing of our community.
In Remains of the Day, his first solo exhibition, Emilio Cresciani has given us seven big, bold images. He has made photographs of thrown away objects, deconstructed and then reassembled them in ways that encourage us to go beyond their immediate, striking visual surfaces to interrogate and explore them for their component parts and meanings. This is a thought provoking group of works and a remarkably mature first exhibition.
PhotoAccess is proud to share Emilio Cresciani’s Remains of the Day with visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
David Chalker
Welcome to the PhotoAccess website. We hope the information and features on this site will help you become involved with PhotoAccess through our exhibitions, courses and other programs.
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PhotoAccess acknowledges the support of the ACT Government through artsACT and the ACT Arts Fund, and the Australian Government through the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy.
PhotoAccess and the HUW DAVIES GALLERY are located in the Manuka Arts Centre, an ACT Government arts facility.
Images: Barbie Robinson,'February bird' (2006); Jocelyn Rosen, 'Abstract bust' (2009)
To commemorate its 25th Anniversary in September 2009 PhotoAccess produced a limited edition print portfolio of 16 images. Artists associated with PhotoAccess as board members, board advisors, staff, course tutors and exhibiting members donated the images.
This set of images is from the PhotoAccess Collection.
Macquarie Editions printed the portfolio with UltraChrome HDR pigment inks on 310 gsm Canson Infinity BFK Rives 100% rag in a numbered edition of 25, with one artist’s proof. Proceeds from the sale of the edition will help PhotoAccess continue its work providing community access to the photo based arts through exhibitions, courses and special projects. The first 10 sets are for sale as boxed sets. Images numbered 11 to 20/25 are for sale individually.
Two boxed sets and a number of individual prints have been sold and one set was donated to the ACT Government for the collection of the Canberra Museum and Gallery.
David Chalker
We first saw Travis Heinrich’s outstanding multimedia work in the 2011 ANU School of Art Graduating exhibition and invited him to show in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY Multimedia Room. Before he moved to Melbourne in 2012 Heinrich’s work earned him a number of awards and was the subject of articles and reviews in print and electronic media. Travis has created a new untitled piece for this showing. We are delighted to share it with visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
David Chalker
We are pleased to announce that Canberra City Framing in Hobart Place (just around the corner from London Circuit) has agreed to give PhotoAccess members a 10% discount on framing. You will need to present a current membership card to take advantage of the discount.
Our thanks to Michael Cammack for offering this benefit to members.
kaori gallery at Canberra City Framing presents changing exhibitions of photography and other media. Drop in and have a look next time you're in Civic.
Sean Davey's 'Dog Food & Oysters' is a self-published book of images made in America some years ago. He says:
'This book is not necessarily a narrative about the US during this time, but looking at a lot of the images, I do see significant references to a country at war. Soldiers on the front page of the New York Times (p.19); pro-war supporters flying flags on a street corner in Nashville, Tennessee (p.79); soldiers departing for Germany on their way to Iraq (p.45), and tourists looking at The White House through a chain link fence during renovations to restrict public access to the area (p.85). There are undeniable signs that suggest conflict, but that certainly was not my intention in making the photographs. I was more interested in photographing for myself, to learn how to see things that did not require a written or verbal explanation'.
Sean's launch of the book on 2 May 2013 is accompanied by a showing of selected works from the 'Dog Food & Oysters' series in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY Multimedia Room. Copies of the book and images from the series will be avaiable at PhotoAccess until 19 May.
David Chalker
Our first 'In Conversation' for 2013 was Photographer and ANU lecturer Tim Brook's conversation on the topic of ‘Colour’.
Tim is an audio-visual artist, teacher, curator and writer, he describes himself as a ‘lapsed mathematician’ and is Visiting Fellow at the School of Art (Photography and Media Arts).
You can view a video version of the event by following this link:
PhotoAccess has a long history of supporting Indigenous artists. A particular focus for our support has been artist residencies and NAIDOOC Week exhibitions each year for emerging Indigenous photomedia artists.
We are pleased to announce that our 2013 PhotoAccess emerging Indigenous photomedia artist is Marissa McDowell, a Wiradjuri woman originally from Cowra. Marissa has worked in live production for the Canberra Raiders and Brumbies, hosts and produces an Indigenous radio program on 2XXfm 98.3 Community Radio and has worked on live news and events with the ABC, The National Folk Festival, National Museum and the Rock Eisteddfod at Canberra Theatre.
If you would like to be considered for a residency in 2014 read the information in the PhotoAccess emerging Indigenous photomedia artist program article on the About Us page and then email david@photoaccess.org.au attaching a CV. We aim to complete the selection of our 2014 emerging artist by November 2013.
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