Exhibition brochure | Claudia Terstappen: In the shadow of change

FRONT GALLERY

CLAUDIA TERSTAPPEN: IN THE SHADOW OF CHANGE Claudia Terstappen originally trained as a sculptor but for over three decades she has worked in the medium of photography. In some respects, her art practice has been developed between these two artistic disciplines. She retains a strong interest in the sculptural sensation of a physical encounter in space, but she uses the two-dimensional medium of photography to document and reiterate these experiences.

Terstappen’s interest in the interplay between depth and surface is also evident in the subjects that she explores. She often photographs places that have deep or hidden meanings. This includes sites of pilgrimage, shrines of worship and landscapes invested with mythic significance.

These associations are not always apparent, and often subsist as a type of secret knowledge, but they can be given tangible form through processes of story-telling and ceremonial action. Terstappen engages with these locations in order to give them a tangible photographic form, elaborating a sense of symbolic power or sublime drama across the surface of her images.

Victoria [Australia] 2004 Alligator nest [Australia] 2002 Sickness country [Australia] 2002 Mamukala [Australia] 2003 four ink-jet prints on vinyl 300.0 x 300.0 cm (each)

In the shadow of change Claudia Terstappen

(title wall, left to right) Little Mountain [Utah, USA] 1996 from the series Sacred land of the Navajo Indians 1990– gelatin silver print 37.0 x 37.0 cm Mountain [Brazil] 1991 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– gelatin silver print 37.0 x 37.0 cm

This exhibition features 75 photographs depicting places that have been invested with spiritual resonances or mythical associations, from Iceland and southern Europe to the Americas and Australia.

The starting point for this exhibition is a selection of gelatin silver prints that were hand-printed by the artist between the mid-1980s and the early 2000s. These pictures now form part of an archive of historically significant places that are threatened by social and ecological change.

This archive of spiritual sites has, over time, become an environmental archive; reminding us that photography not only has the power to bring places to life, but also to bear witness to the forces that threaten life.

The hand-printed black-and-white landscapes are counter posed with four oversized landscapes printed on vinyl. This illuminates the trajectory of Terstappen’s practice, which has moved from the intimacy of handmade photographs to the theatricality of large digital prints.

Claudia Terstappen was born in Germany and studied at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie, the training ground for many of Germany’s most important contemporary artists. She has since exhibited widely throughout Europe, North America and Australia, where she now lives. Terstappen is currently Professor of Photography at Monash University.

In the shadow of change Claudia Terstappen

MONASH GALLERY OF ART The home of Australian photography 860 Ferntree Gully Rd Wheelers Hill Victoria 3150 T: +61 3 8544 0500 E: mga@monash.vic.gov.au W: www.mga.org.au Tues to Fri: 10am–5pm, Sat & Sun 12–5pm closed: Mondays and public holidays

9 NOVEMBER 2013–26 JANUARY 2014

The City of Monash’s premier cultural facility

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SPECIAL EXHIBITIONS GALLERY

La Vieja [Spain] 2001 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– two gelatin silver prints 86.0 x 170.0 cm (grey wall) Lonely star [USA] 2001 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– gelatin silver print 37.0 x 37.0 cm

(grey wall cont’d)) Bushland [USA] 1996 Canyon [USA] 1996 Driftwood [USA] 1990 Tewa Navaha I (cultivated lands) [USA] 1990 Tewa Navaha II (cultivated lands) [USA] 1990 Forest [USA] 1996 from the series Sacred land of the Navajo Indians 1990– six gelatin silver prints 37.0 x 37.0 cm (each)

Jungle [Brazil] 1991 from the series Ghosts of the Jucurucu 1991– three gelatin silver prints 46.0 x 68.0 cm (each)

Flashed trees [USA] 1992 Tree [Canada] 1992 Canyon with rainbow [USA] 1992 Scattered rocks [Ireland] 1992 from the series Sacred mountains 1989–

(grid, top row, left to right) Mountain and 1 cloud [Scotland] 1992 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– Wood like bones [Vancouver Island, Canada] 1990 from the series Our ancestors 1990– Melting III [Iceland] 1992 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– Spitzberge [Iceland] 2001 from the series Vanishing landscapes 1987–

(grid, bottom row, left to right) Caves [Iceland] 1992 Dry canyon II [USA] 1992 Waterfall II [Iceland] 1992 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– Myvatn [Iceland] 2001 Waterfall III [Iceland] 2001 from the series Vanishing landscapes 1987– Dry canyon [USA] 1992 from the series Sacred mountains 1989–

Jungle [France] 1987 Mountainface [France] 1987 from the series Vanishing landscapes 1987– 16 gelatin silver prints 21.0 x 21.0 cm (each) For Caspar David Friedrich [USA] 1996 from the series Sacred land of the Navajo Indians 1990– Big Mountain [USA] 2001 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– Zion Park [USA] 1996 from the series Sacred land of the Navajo Indians 1990– three gelatin silver prints 37.0 x 37.0 cm (each)

(back wall) Turtle dreaming [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 from the series Vanishing landscapes 1987– Jungle [Queensland, Australia] 2002 Curtain fig tree [Queensland, Australia] 2002 from the series Our ancestors 1990–

(temporary wall) Branch touching water [France] 1986 Jungle [France] 1986 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– Alligator nest [Queensland, Australia] 2002 from the series Lost world 2002– three gelatin silver prints 21.0 x 21.0 cm (each)

USA – Double rainbow 2001 ‘dina’ da doo’ (Navaji: It will not last) [USA] 1990 Iceland – Waterfall [Iceland] 2001 Top [Iceland] 2001 Mountain 1 [Iceland] 2001

Mountain II [Las Palmas, Spain] 1992 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– two gelatin silver prints 49.0 x 24.0 cm Cacti [USA] 1996 from the series Sacred land of the Navajo Indians 1990– gelatin silver print 29.0 x 43.0 cm

Pressure [Iceland] 2001 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– nine gelatin silver prints 120.0 x 120.0 cm (each)

Stoney beach [Iceland] 2001 from the series Sacred mountains 1989– gelatin silver print 80.0 x 80.0 cm

(top row, left to right) Billabong [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Bushfire III [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Rainbow Valley [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Jim Jim Falls [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 from the series Our ancestors 1990– Alligator nest [Queensland, Australia] 2002 from the series Lost world 2002– Branch over water [Queensland, Australia] 2002 Bushfire II [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Barramundi Gorge [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Fire [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Tree ferns II [Australia] 2002 Rainbow Valley II [Australia] 2002 from the series Our ancestors 1990–

(bottom row, left to right) Single tree fern [Australia] 2002 Thick forest [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Cabbage trees [Queensland, Australia] 2002 Cathedral Fig Tree [Australia] 2002 Billabong [Australia] 2002 Sickness country II [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Thick forest II [Northern Territory, Australia] 2002 Namandi spirit [Queensland, Australia] 2002 from the series Our ancestors 1990– Licuala [Queensland, Australia] 2002 from the series Vanishing landscapes 1987– Bush [Australia] 2002 Tree ferns [Australia] 2002 from the series Our ancestors 1990– 22 gelatin silver prints 29.0 x 29.0 cm (each)