Scenes from the Mall - Photographic portraits in the Belconnen Mall (1989-90)

Exhibition Review: Photography | Brian Rope

Scenes from the Mall - Photographic portraits in the Belconnen Mall (1989-90) | Spiros Coutroubas

West Gallery, Belconnen Arts Centre | 1 December 2023 – 11 February 2024 

The largest shopping centre in the satellite Belconnen area of Canberra opened for business in 1978 as that district reached a critical population mass. It was then known as the Belconnen Mall, and many still refer to it by that name. The portraits in this exhibition were all created there in 1989 and 1990. There are three distinct sets of portraits, each documenting people in different mall spaces. 

The artist, Spiros Coutroubas, has been practising photography since the 1980s, focussing on portraiture and social documentary imagery of people. His images are intended to document the present for the future. So it is most appropriate that these portraits are being exhibited for the first time more than 30 years after they were made. It is also appropriate that the exhibition venue is close by the now “shoppingtown.” 

One set, Portrait of a Stairwell, 1990, captures passers-by pausing for the photographer’s  camera as they made their way through one of the mall’s parking areas. Asked to pose right there and then in front of a portable backdrop they agreed. Except for the artist’s father, who happened to pass by, the subjects are anonymous.

Essentially we just see people in front of a plain backdrop. There is, however, part of the stairs -  showing the shots were not taken in an indoor studio. Some of the people who happened to come by that day have things with them such as different types of bags - contents unknown. In one case, we see the subject’s bicycle. In another a man has a pipe in his mouth. Such elements, plus clothing, tells us about the time period.

Belconnen Mall Parking Area Stairwell, 1990 (1) © Spiros Coutroubas

Belconnen Mall Parking Area Stairwell, 1990 (2) © Spiros Coutroubas

Belconnen Mall Parking Area Stairwell, 1990 (3) © Spiros Coutroubas

Another set, Shoppingtown, 1989 (printed 2023), is very different. Subjects include salespeople, promotional staff and performers in the common areas and supermarkets. These include a Priceline shop assistant, two Encyclopaedia Brittanica salesmen and a young Legacy Day volunteer. There’s a woman staffing a Friskies Buffet dog food display in front of the cat food shelves in Coles (with no barcodes in sight). Presumably, she was not providing free samples for people to taste on the spot. Does anyone recall Larry Keith and his Wonder Dogs, or The Whack-a-doo Show?

Friskies Buffet Pet Food Promotion, Coles Supermarket, Belconnen Mall, 1989 © Spiros Coutroubas 

Larry Keith & His Wonder Dogs,  Belconnen Mall, 1989 © Spiros Coutroubas

The Whack-a-doo Show, Belconnen Mall, 1989 © Spiros Coutroubas

In the final set displayed (a video as well as prints), Lido Bistro, 1989, regular customers of the eatery and bar have complemented their portraits by adding their names and other handwritten words on the prints. That provides an extra dimension of considerable interest.

Fred, Lido Bistro, 1989 © Spiros Coutroubas 

Geoff Young & Sue Young, Lido Bistro, 1989 © Spiros Coutroubas

Harry+Pauline, Lido Bistro, 1989 © Spiros Coutroubas

Many visitors to this exhibition will know the now Westfield Shopping Centre well. These pictures acknowledge and preserve some apparently unexceptional situations that would otherwise fade into the past. Coutroubas’s parents ran the Lido Bistro. He remembers that times were tough – record interest rates and high inflation - the Lido’s books told the story of the decline in people’s spending. Sound familiar?

All the images were taken, with a bulky medium format camera on a heavy-duty tripod, in the mall’s common areas and in a supermarket during business hours without questions from management. They feature people who are socially disadvantaged, people doing jobs they might not boast about, people who didn’t have the opportunity to look their best, and people who opened up to Coutroubas with no clear idea of what would become of his images.

Today, the Belconnen Mall prohibits photography without authorisation and conditions apply to those that get the nod. Coutroubas has noted though that, “ironically …. images of people in malls are more abundant than ever. Social media provides plenty of candid pictures and videos from smartphones and surveillance cameras - people dropping their ice creams, tripping down escalators, pranking, fighting and even stealing.”

As well as the exhibition, the artist has published a book of the prints plus very readable words about the project. It can be purchased from here and at some Canberra bookshops.

This review is also available on the author's blog here.

 

Pictures of You

Photography | Brian Rope

Pictures of You | Hilary Wardhaugh

Belconnen Arts Centre | 2–17 December 2022, & 17 January - 5 February 2023

In 2017, Canberran John Brookes was given three months to live. He reached out to an artist to paint a memorial portrait. He is still going five years later and intends to continue for the foreseeable future!

Along the way, Brookes established Canberry Communications - a non-profit that supports communities including those with mental and/or physical disability. It develops arts projects in a range of media for small charities who may not otherwise have the resources to implement them. It believes strongly in giving a voice, enabling people to tell their own stories in unique and thought-provoking ways - looking beyond their 'issues' to the whole person.

This exhibition is the first outcome of one such arts project. Undertaken in collaboration with photographer Hilary Wardhaugh and the Belconnen Arts Centre, it was launched along with a number of other art exhibitions, each celebrating ageing or disability, on the eve of International Day of Persons with Disabilities, held worldwide annually to observe and highlight issues that affect people with disabilities.

More than a photographer, Wardhaugh is an artist, activist/provocateur, volunteer and creator of community. Her creative endeavours bring people together in the pursuit of a better world. Her interests involve the human condition: frailty, irony, contradiction. And she pursues topical and creative projects to highlight themes and issues reflecting those conditions.

Pictures of You takes a unique approach to portraying people with lived experience of being disabled or of being mental health consumers. Each person collaborated as equals with Wardhaugh to produce their portraits honestly reflecting them as whole persons and not just ‘consumers’ – a process that had surprising and inspirational results, both for the subjects and the artist.

The collaborations asked a question - have you ever tried to explain how it is to be YOU? To a friend, a partner, your family, a professional – even to yourself? Now it asks us to imagine having a disability or being a mental health consumer, to think about the prejudices that come with that, and the challenges of engaging people to look beyond our imagined disability to the whole of our personalities.

It is suggested, correctly, that an image: a single depiction of mood, hopes, fears, strengths and personality, can say so much more than words. Imagine having an image that is YOU, that sums up who and what you are, a source of pride that you can keep, display and say…“this is me.”

This is the focus of the Pictures of You exhibition, a modest yet important show highlighting that people with disabilities and mental health consumers are equal to everyone else, have as much to offer and give as the rest of us, are people to be admired and loved just as much as every other person. They have feelings, they have skills and talents, they can do all sorts of things. There are images of individuals and one group shot of some talented, determined, enthusiastic, and absolutely impressive people with disability in the Rebus Theatre family.

Most, perhaps all, of the people portrayed in Wardhaugh’s artworks were present at the opening and gladly lined up for group shots with the artist and others. It was wonderful to see the people alongside their portraits. Bruno would probably have loved to play his guitar for everyone in the large crowd.

Bruno Cirillo © Hilary Wardhaugh

The Rebus folk no doubt would also have loved to perform show their talents.

Rebus © Hilary Wardhaugh

Go take a look and ask yourself who these portrayed people are.

Arto © Hilary Wardhaugh

Eleanor Waight © Hilary Wardhaugh

Glen © Hilary Wardhaugh

Melissa Hammond © Hilary Wardhaugh

Some other photographic artworks amongst the companion exhibitions are also well worth seeing. Indeed, I encourage you to see all the exhibitions.

This review was first published online by The Canberra Times here and then printed on 10/12/22. It is also available on the author's blog here.

 

Resilience: Yet Here We Are

Photography | Brian Rope

Resilience: Yet Here We Are | Flavia Abdurahman and Gabor Dunajszky

Belco ARTS, Pivot Gallery | UNTIL 9 OCTOBER 2022

I am a man, raised in the Christian tradition, with minimal knowledge of Islam, with no memories of my childhood war zone experience, who’s never visited Afghanistan. How can I review an exhibition about Afghan Muslim women in war zones? I’ll do my best!

Resilience: Yet Here We Are uses video by Flavia Abdurahman and photographs by Gabor Dunajszky. Both speak about seeing themselves as resilient. The people shown in the work certainly are. This is about amazing social structures supporting people - traumatised women nevertheless feeding, supporting and caring for their families. A definition of resilience. They are still there, doing the things they need to, despite all their experiences.

At the time of filming her Afghanistan footage, Abdurahman was an independent video journalist, specialising in short documentaries and current affairs. Her clients included the UN Mission to Afghanistan’s Public Information Office and the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs.

The video features parts of footage for the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, 2005-6, and of a journey shooting video of Afghan women and girls, 2003-6. It’s a female video journalist’s view; but speaks to us all. Powerfully. Inviting us to observe, and absorb, human dignity. To appreciate why she considers the Minister is a hero. Ideally, we should watch the Ministry of Women documentary before viewing ‘The Journey.’

Purple girl at WD at Blue Mosque (video still) - Flavia Abdurahman

Blushing Bride to be (video still) - Flavia Abdurahman

One clip is titled Endless Life, specifically to draw attention to civilian resilience in the face of the post-Cold War military doctrine of "Endless War". Abdurahman suggests that our former federal government’s policy aspiration to make Australia a "Top Ten” defence exporter means that, in order to make the defence industry profitable, the Anglo-American sphere would need to create more “Afghanistans.” And that means we should learn from the resilience of the Afghans. She hopes viewers of her videos appreciate the factual depictions of heroism; unassuming, humble and very human. 

Dunajszky is a well-experienced humanitarian aid worker who happens to take photographs – following a family tradition. He first worked in Afghanistan in 2001 shortly after the fall of the Taliban.

The photographs were recorded where the residents – despite their “normal” living conditions having been destroyed by earthquakes, war zones, and the like – retained their humanity and continued their everyday lives under very difficult conditions, relying on their resilience, good humour and belief in a better future.

The black and white photos are, perhaps, more powerful than his coloured works. The people photos are the most emotive. His portraits of “a young Afghan Lady,” and of then Minister of Women’s Affairs Dr Jalal during an unguarded moment reveal much.

Dr Massouda Jalal, the then Minister of Women's Affairs, 2004-6 - Gabor Dunajszky

Images of boys playing in a Kabul scrapyard, and of a desecrated graveyard, tell us much more than their specific content.

A Graveyard in Herat - Gabor Dunajszky

Together, the photos and video provide respectful and rare glimpses, some now forbidden, into the resolute and inventive endeavours of ordinary people to return dignity to their families and communities, in the face of complex challenges.

More recent re-occupation of Afghanistan by the Taliban makes these images important memories of people trying to refashion and reimagine its future. During the brief period, 2003 to 2006, Afghanistan worked towards becoming a viable democracy. Steps were taken to protect women’s rights. It was moving away from a tribal militia environment and commenced essential dialogue and interaction between civilian and military actors to promote humanitarian principles.

In January 2022, the Taliban closed down the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. They’ve shut down most girls’ secondary schools and forbidden women to work.

This exhibition needs to be widely seen, touring other parts of Australia – including regional areas where Afghan refugees now live and work.

This review was first published online by The Canberra Times here on 12/9/22 and then in print on page 28 on 26/9/22. It is also available on the author's blog here.