photo Charles Radnay
“[W]e still do not know exactly what pictures are, what their relation to language is, how they operate on observers and on the world, how their history is to be understood, and what is to be done with or about them. ” (W. J. T. Mitchell,Picture Theory: essays on verbal and visual representation, (University . of Chicago Press) 1994)
The camera would seem to be the most perfect instrument for excising a sample of the passage of light and time across the portion of the world on which we stand. But an extract is not to be mistaken for the essence of the real. So much is missing or excluded, but what is left may be beautiful, intriguing, puzzling or revelatory. Like a ship embalmed in ice or a tree suspended in the sky, a photograph is an enigma that requires our input. The way we read images is not dissimilar to the reading we may make of a poem or a piece of fiction, though the nature of images is that we must be more active in our reading, we have to tell ourselves about what we see. The first question so often asked of an image is “What, who or where, is it?” This is an exhibition of Australian photography, historic, modern and contemporary, drawn from the extensive collections of the Horsham Regional Art gallery. Among the forty distinguished photographers included are Farrell and Parkin, Matthew Sleeth, Peter Lyssiotis, Chris Barry, Janina Green, Olive Cotton, Norman Deck, Carrol Jerrems, and Melanie Le Guay. The exhibition includes news photographs, photojournalism and scientific images among fine art images. They have in common a concern with the incredible, with the illusionistic, fantastic or hallucinatory, with deceptions, lies or hoaxes, with the apparition, or the double-take. These are visions in the sense that they present themselves to us as strange, uncanny, paradoxical or ridiculous. The only way of deciphering them is to ask not just “What is it?” but to construct our own narrative around them. To assist in this process each image is ‘captioned’ with text extracts from Australian literature that may contradict or confirm the viewer’s readings of the works. The writers, of course, are describing an image to the minds eye of the viewer where it remains inaccessible to anyone other than the reader themselves. The photographer works from existing ‘reality’ in the hope of evoking the narrative or conceptual element. This is a provocative, but accessible exhibition that celebrates the originality and diversity of Australian vision in image and text.
phiction is managed by Horsham Regional Art Gallery in collaboration with La Trobe University Bendigo Merle Hathaway Director Horsham Regional Art Gallery 80 Wilson Street, Horsham 3400 (03) 5382 5575 t (03) 5382 5407 f 0419 324042 email hrag@netconnect.com.au
photo Ian Ward
But here the speakers fell silent. Perhaps they were thinking that there is a vast distance between any poem and any picture; and that to compare them stretches words too far. At last, said one of them, we have reached the edge where painting breaks off and takes her way into the silent land. We shall have to set foot there soon, and all our words will fold their wings and sit huddled like rooks on the tops of the trees in winter...But since we love words let us dally for a little on the verge, said the other. Let us hold painting by the hand a moment longer, for though they must part in the end, painting and writing have much to tell each other: they have much in common. [ Virginia Woolf, Essay on Walter Sickert 1934 ]
photo Charles Radnay
80 Wilson Street, Horsham 3400 Tel: (03) 5382 5575 ATTENTION: Merle Hathaway/Trevor Smith Yes We are interested in hosting the exhibition "Phiction" OR Please send us more information Length of show: We prefer blocks of (CIRCLE): 4 6 8 weeks (or specify) Dates: Our preferred dates are: (please supply us with a range if possible)
Comments:
I understand that this expression of interest does not commit this gallery to hosting the exhibition and that the fee, which includes freight and insurance, will be no more than $900
Signed: Position: Institution/Gallery: Telephone: Fax: Email:
16 August, 2000 Dear Director/Curator, Phiction: a touring exhibition Horsham Regional Art Gallery is planning to tour for the first time a selection from its fine collection of photography. We are one of the few public galleries in Australia to specialize in the collection and display of photography, so we are pleased to have this opportunity to show the works more widely. James McArdle, himself a well-respected Australian photographer and Head of Photography at La Trobe University, Bendigo, is curating the exhibition. His selection includes photographs from the 19th century, such as a rare Frank Hurley image of Stapleton's ship trapped in ice, through to the art/photography of Peter Lyssiotis. The emphasis is on photographs which are not what they seem deceptions, lies, hoaxes and the fantastic! It will therefore read well as a mini history of photography as well as inform of a variety of photographic techniques, and the fusion of art and photography. The cost per gallery will be under $900. The exhibition will come of course with a comprehensive, inexpensive catalog, extended labels, postcards to sell and an education kit prepared by our Education Officer, Mary French. i.e It will be enjoyable and usable by the students it is aimed at! As we are applying for Arts Victoria funding, we need to secure an expression of interest ASAP. This does not, of course commit you at this stage to receiving the exhibition. The exhibition will tour from late 2001 to 2003. If you are interested, please complete the attached form and fax to us now. Yours sincerely, Merle Hathaway
phiction is managed by Horsham Art Gallery in collaboration with La Trobe University Bendigo Merle
Director Horsham Regional Art Gallery 80 Wilson Street, Horsham 3400 (03) 5382 5575 t (03) 5382 5407 f 0419 324042 email hrag@netconnect.com.au
photo Ian Ward
Please Fax now to: Horsham Regional Art Gallery (03) 5382 5407