Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope
Dark
Matter 2024 I Rozalind Drummond, Claire Paul, Phoebe Kelly, Sari Sutton
Photo
Access I 25 October - 23 November 2024
The annual Dark Matter residency program at Photo Access aims to provide a supported opportunity for artists whose practices incorporate darkroom-based or other alternative processes. The residencies aim to foster the creation of innovative image-based works that involve artistic experimentation, critically engage with contemporary darkroom-based practices and explore social, political, environmental and aesthetic questions of contemporary relevance.
This
exhibition is the outcome of the 2024 Dark Matter program. The catalogue tells
us that, “using the Photo Access darkroom facilities, these four artists have
explored materials and methods of image-making that challenge and expand the perceived
boundaries of photography. Their collective works navigate the interplay of
landscape, technology and natural forces through experimental approaches …. and
site-specific practices.”
When reviewing the 2022 Dark Matter show, I suggested that whilst most of us are obsessed with immediate image creation, that year’s participants were exhibiting what a slower and more contemplative approach could deliver. That is equally the case again this year.
Before looking separately at each artist’s contributions, I would briefly mention the different display approach used in some parts of this show - works of differing sizes have been grouped together, sometimes overlaying others. That, in itself, provides something additional for us to think about.
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| Installation image – Eunie Kim |
Emerging artist Claire Paul uniquely combines long-exposure photography, foraging, and screen-printing, fostering a mindful connection with the environment through her deeply ecological art practice. Her portraits of place offer something of an antidote to the pace of our lives nowadays. She has used long-exposure pinhole photography to highlight mindfulness and slowness. Her artworks have been screen-printed onto handmade paper using charcoal and ash. She has utilized rainwater, repurposed artworks, plants she has collected from the locations where she has photographed, and other materials like turmeric and rosemary. Viewing and exploring the completed pieces is most enjoyable.
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| Wash, 2024, charcoal and ash screen-printed onto handmade paper (rosemary, recycled artworks, seawater, foraged plant matter from photographed site), 40 x 28 cm - Claire Paul |
Phoebe Kelly is visual artist and photographer living and working in Naarm (Melbourne). She uses photography, casting and processes of material transferral to investigate the potential of translating the intangible into the physical. In this exhibition, smartphone photos serve as the basis for Kelly's prints, all bar one of them being silver gelatin. She has used those images as her source material, then translated and manipulated them in various ways to create transformed artworks. Other processing possibilities that might be employed are still being investigated. The group of pieces being shown here is also very much worth exploring.
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| A moving surface, from the series Two Suns, 2024, silver gelatin print, 40 x 30 cm - Phoebe Kelly |
Rozalind Drummond is a Melbourne-based artist. Working across expanded photographic practice, performative action and video, her practice is essentially a nuanced exploration of spatial and natural environments taking a multi-disciplinary approach. She has used photography, videography and performative actions to engage with the concepts of landscape and place. In her works that are on display in this exhibition, Drummond has examined various transitory sites - temporary buildings, empty offices, and unoccupied spaces – revealing to both herself and us, new terrains. Once more, visitors are encouraged to look closely at the works and consider what they are showing.
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| Untitled, 2024 - type C screen print, recycled muslin cotton, 84 x 145 cm - Rozalind Drummond |
Sari Sutton is a Canberra-based photographer exploring human impact on Earth, and related social, economic, and environmental themes through diverse styles. Inspired by Canberra’s Mount Stromlo – which is deeply significant for settler scientists and its original Indigenous inhabitants, Sutton has investigated “the invisible but felt forces of interconnectedness and energy – between us, the earthly natural world and the celestial.” Her resultant series, Dark Energy, is another excellent outcome from this year’s residencies.
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| Interstellar, 2024 – digital inkjet print on Photo-Tex 118 x 94 cm - Sari Sutton |
This is the third annual Dark Matter show I have reviewed. Once again, the artists have delivered excellent works, demonstrating that the residency program is a most worthwhile one.
This review is also available on the author's blog here.
