CCP’s exhibition that opened on May 16th features an impressive array of established and emerging, local and national talent, featuring the work of Paul Batt, Simon Biggs, Angela Blakely and Alex Kershaw.
In Gallery 1, ‘Geodetic Monuments’ references Australian geographic surveys, matter, and markers. The exhibition’s leaflet seems to tell us very little about this compelling new work by Alex Kershaw, missing the point somewhat on what could be a very effective piece. These images exist, for me, somewhere between the work of Joel Meyerowitz and Richard Long. The visual depictions of scientific mapping devices suggest the seemingly benign, static forces that pervade the Australian landscape. However these metallic figures which control the areas they inhabit reflect not only the ownership of the land; they are reminiscent of gravestones, of stagnant native forefathers amassed and waiting, silenced by industrial production, frozen by science, by the relentlessness of colonial control. These rich images also comment on a phallocentric European-influenced history, and finally on globalisation through suggestions of a technology/ancient landscape dichotomy. The text accompanying this over-abundance of images sadly seems to have missed the opportunity to say something really concrete and pertinent. Instead CCP (or Kershaw, or both) has opted for an impotent textual didacticism where silence would have not only sufficed, but enriched.
‘Keep Passing the Open Windows’ by Angela Blakely (Gallery 2) is the epitome of a cohesive blend of text and image, providing a model (if such a thing is possible) for documentary photography. Her work centres on youth suicide and is considered, piercingly truthful and revelatory. As Blakely comments in her diary, ‘the issue is bigger than the person gone’. Clearly she also feels that the conceptual field of the work is bigger than the photographer, which is a rare and paramount quality. In addition to the photographs, Blakely’s dedication to this project should be applauded; her willingness to collaborate and to interact is the sign of a true documentary image-maker. The attention given to personal objects, the donated photographs, the banalities, the interactions, all bleed with emotion, with repaid trust. Blakely’s piece is simultaneously meditative, unrelentingly brutal, and celebratory.
Meanwhile in the e-media section, ‘Babel’ by Simon Biggs is quietly humming away, an interesting, strangely addictive, and interactive data-spewing binary montage. A 3-D Dewey Decimal based piece.
Finally, in Gallery 3 Paul Batts presents us with a series of interiors: ‘Untitled Spaces’, draws inspiration from and references the detached, banal tradition exemplified by Andreas Gursky. Batts reflects on the nature of a range of art practices through the very spaces they occupy, thus perhaps revealing something about the space itself or the people who exist in these spaces. This is an interesting idea and one that is produced with a certain degree of technical aptitude. Unfortunately however, Batt offers the viewer little to grasp, little to believe in (perhaps this is a by-product of sharing an exhibition with Angela Blakely’s work). Batts’ images do not seem to gel; hence although I was quite taken with the image of the old-Theatre-cum-$2 dollar shop there was no overall sense of fluidity; perhaps this was just bad editing, perhaps not. There is also something smug about these images; a cyclical, self-aggrandising smugness that stems, for me, from the time and energy Batt has expunged actually photographing these spaces. A photographer photographing a photographic studio? How post-modern! How 1989!
In this new exhibition CCP has presented a dynamic and arousing set of images that stem from differing backgrounds, a respectable and conscientious notion. On some levels this works and is refreshing; they seem to have all the bases covered – landscape, studio, and documentary. However, considering the sheer strength and emotional depth of Blakely’s work, it cannot help but overpower any other work in the vicinity. The detached aesthetic of Batt’s and (to some extent) Kershaw’s work pale in comparison, seem too self-aware, too smug, too ‘cool’ and finally, inferior.
The Centre for Contemporary Photography can be found at 205 Johnston St, Fitzroy (Melbourne). The exhibition is on until June 14.