CITY
COMMISSIONS - PORTRAITS | SAMMY HAWKER
Tuggeranong Town Centre (on windows of Lakeview House & under the Soward Way Bridge) | Until 4 July 2022
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Installation shot - Under Soward Way bridge (supplied) |
Sammy Hawker is a visual artist working predominantly on Ngunawal Country. She works predominantly with analogue photography techniques and often works closely with Traditional Custodians, scientists and ecologists.
In 2021 Hawker had two highly successful solo shows as part of a PhotoAccess darkroom residency. She is currently an artist-in-residence with the CORRIDOR project and is also preparing for another solo show before year end.
Over the last six months Hawker worked closely with nine young people from Headspace Tuggeranong exploring ways they could co-create photographic portraits. This was part of a City Commissions project delivered by Contour 556, one of seven artsACT initiatives in the Creative Recovery and Resilience Program.
Headspace is a safe space that welcomes and supports young people aged 12–25, their families, friends and carers, helping them to find the right services. Learning the Headspace motto “clear is kind”, Hawker realised her project was also about finding clarity as a form of self-compassion - shining light on what for many was a particularly dark and confusing time.
Hawker challenges the notion that a photograph
constitutes the moment that a shutter is released. She explores ways of making,
rather than taking, images. She wanted the project to be empowering - with no
right or wrong and where the final photographs celebrated identity and
experience beyond just the way her subjects looked in the frame. It was an
opportunity to realise we always have some choice whether we repress difficult
experiences.
The portraits of the young people were captured on a large format film camera. Commonly, in photographic practice, touch and marks on negatives are to be avoided. But Hawker invited her subjects to handle, manipulate, scratch or even bury negatives in order to introduce something of themselves. The young folk wrangled puppies, dived into rivers, got dressed up, sprinkled bushfire ash on negatives and processed film in the Headspace carpark.
Each participant was invited to use the project to reflect on their experiences of difficult times. Their statements relating to the images reveal resilience and hope.
Chanelle reflected about living in the moment. The negative of her portrait, showing her immersed in the Murrumbidgee River, was processed with water from that river, ocean water and permanent marker.
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Chanelle © Sammy Hawker |
Sophie
spoke of learning to embrace everything in life. Her portrait’s negative was
processed with bushfire ash and the word Embrace scratched into it. The
ash creates a frame that embraces her.
Sanjeta really likes her photo with jellyfish manipulations as metaphors for how she now goes with the flow of her life journey. Her expression conveys a “so be it” attitude. The negative was processed with Murrumbidgee water, rainwater, seaweed and chemical stains.
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Sanjeta © Sammy Hawker |
Ray wanted to keep connected and bring some joy into the lives of others. The portrait’s beaming smile conveys joy. The idea of processing the negative with Whiz Pop Bang bubble mixture and wattle pollen adds to the joy.
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Ray's Statement |
Jazzy is photographed with her much loved dog Milo. So, of course, the processing of the negative utilised Milo’s pawprints.
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Jazzy © Sammy Hawker  Devante © Sammy Hawker |
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Installation shot - Under Soward Way bridge (supplied) |
When I reviewed her Acts
of Co-Creation show (for which she received a Canberra Critics Circle
Award) in this publication, I wrote of Hawker’s then newly formed relationship
with Ngunawal custodian Tyronne Bell who helped her to learn about sites she
was working with. For this project, Hawker arranged for Bell to escort her
subjects walking Ngunawal Country, providing a healing experience for them.
I strongly
recommended readers to visit City Commissions - Portraits - and reflect on your own difficult times.
An edited version of this review was published in The Canberra Times of 28/6/22 on the Capital Life page, and the full version online here. It is also on the author's blog here.
