HERE&NOW17: New Photography

Emerging curator Chelsea Hopper presents an exhibition of new works by six WA artists exploring how instant connectivity has altered the margins of photography.

HERE&NOW17: New Photography invites viewers on a journey through the lens that is entirely distinct from the social media platforms saturating modern life with photographic images; yet is informed by the excessive visual consumption of our hyper-connected world. Curator Chelsea Hopper presents new works questioning the nature of photography by six early career artists in Western Australia: Jacqueline Ball, Scott Burton, Lucy Griggs, Georgia Kaw, Dan McCabe and Lydia Trethewey.

Questioning the nature of photography in the contemporary context, exhibited works vary broadly in scale, subject matter and range of media. The breadth of mediums presenting the contemporary photographic image spans smartphone photos, stop animation, photorealistic painting, photographic sculpture, prints and cyanotypes. Dan McCabe’s photographic sculptures, for example, consider colour and light; his use of semi-transparent acrylic panels suggests an aperture, lens or screen.

Jacqueline Ball’s series of inkjet prints depict cropped bodies and scenes reminiscent of the everyday, yet exuding an uncanny quality not found on Instagram. Each over a metre in height, there is something confronting in the intimacy of a private or personal realm seen at large scale across the vast white walls. Conversely, Scott Burton’s tiny digital prints are presented within a cluster of wall panels, their small scale pulling viewers closer to inspect the iPhone photos of Perth’s public spaces.

“Photography’s distinctive value,” says Hopper, “lies more in its humble documentary function, its intimate examination and commemoration of everyday life, than it does in its obsolete technology”.

The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery’s annual HERE&NOW exhibition gives an emerging curator an opportunity to showcase contemporary artists practicing in Western Australia. UWA’s Chief Cultural Officer Professor Ted Snell commends the 2017 installment for “showcasing a new generation of artists responding to the impact of photography in shaping our vision of the world”.

EXHIBITION
HERE&NOW17: New Photography
29 April – 8 July 2017
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth

Courtesy the artists and Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth