Canberra Critics Circle: Sanctuary

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

SANCTUARY | 25 Artists

Sutton Village Gallery | 1 - 23 June 2024

The goal of this exhibition is to present a wide range of viewpoints about sanctuary. Australian and international artists honour the history of photography and the skill that goes into making images using traditional printing methods. The labour-intensive methods have produced handmade prints with rich textures and fine details that compel visitors to take their time, approach closely, and recognize the creativity and talent that went into each artwork. The visual narrative transports viewers to comforting spaces through found moments of serenity or consolation. We are encouraged to consider how we define sanctuary and how it may be apparent in our own lives.

The artworks include photopolymer photogravure with chin colle, salt prints from a wet collodion glass negative, cyanotypes and gum bichromates over cyanotype, Vandyke brown prints, albumen prints, carbon transfer prints on glass, a polaroid lifted and transferred onto watercolour paper, carbon prints from an iPhone capture, lith prints, chromogenic colour contact prints, tintype, and the Mordençage technique. No doubt, like me, most readers will not be familiar with all these processes. That is just one very good reason to visit this exhibition.

So, let me now share here just some of the pieces on show. Sydney artist Amanda Lawson has a profound love of botanical forms. She is exhibiting two delightful photogravure prints of tidal flow scenes in the Jervis Bay national parks.

TIDAL FLOW 2024, Photopolymer photogravure with chin colle on Fabriano Ivory 220 gsm © Amanda Lawson

Danielle Edwards, from Melbourne, similarly finds sanctuary whilst walking through forests. Her infrared capture of a giant coastal redwood is simply beautiful.

THE GIANT ed. 4/15. Photographed 2018, Printed 2022 Platinum Palladium
on French Bergger 100% cotton paper - © Danielle Edwards

Local artist Chris Holly also finds sanctuary in the bush. His artworks were made on black & white film on a 1950s twin lens reflex camera. Then he used the Van Dyke brown process with a ferric ammonium citrate/silver nitrate chemistry. The emulsion was hand-painted onto Bergger 320gsm 100% cotton paper and then exposed by contact printing to ultraviolet light. He describes the resultant prints, of rocks in the Namadgi National Park which many of us would not even notice, as reverent and respectful. And, indeed, they are.

Untitled I, 2024 - Vandyke on Bergger 320gsm COT paper, Print size, 16x16cm, 41x51cm, framed © Chris Holly

Canberra artist (and busy commercial photographer) Hilary Wardhaugh is now an empty nester. She has moved to a home where the garden provides her with inspiration as well as sanctuary. Using Polaroid film that expired 20 years ago when her son was born, she has created a Polaroid lift of her favourite chair in the garden. It is an excellent example of how a good image can be made using a simple subject.

EMPTY-NESTER GARDEN U/S Polaroid lift and transfer onto watercolour paper © Hilary Wardhaugh

Another Canberran, Ossian Desmond-Jones is showing cyanotypes. One is of a nautilus shell which “forms a perfect protective sanctuary for the creature that inhabits it, and functions as an object of beauty on its own.” The technique used has created most interesting colours.

One international guest artist is Diana H. Bloomfield of North Carolina, USA. Her gum bichromate piece most successfully demonstrates that this process can resolve fine details in numerous colours.

SUNFLOWERS U/S 2018, Gum bichromate on 100% archival cotton rag. Print size 32x41cm,

Gallery operator Kim Sinclair has assembled a fine body of handmade prints, including one of her own delightful artworks. Every piece is of high quality and worthy of close inspection.

This review is also available on the author's blog here. And it has also been published in the June issue of The Printer at pages 18-21: here.

Monday, June 3, 2024

Sanctuary