I’m currently blogging from Australia!
A few of weeks ago I was invited to visit Australia to work with the Education and Participation Team at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA) in Western Australia. Very surprising and exciting news, I just wish we could have taken the whole QUAD team to enjoy the sunshine and share the creative experience! I arrived yesterday and went straight to ‘work’ researching art exhibitions and participation and engagement in Perth, WA.
Why Australia?
PICA and QUAD have a shared exhibition Hijacked III, curated by QUAD‘s Artistic Director Louise Clements, Mark McPherson Big City Press, Leigh Robb PICA.
QUAD were given some funding by the Australian Arts Council to get one or two members of QUAD’s Participation and Education team out to Australia to work with PICA in person and share practice from the UK.
We’ve been working with PICA’s Education and Projects team closely throughout the whole exhibition process via skype and email, but the 8 hour time difference creates a barrier to true sharing. While in Perth we will share practice, attend events and workshops, and learn how we approach our similar job roles in a myriad of different ways, for a myriad of reasons.
Myself and QUAD’s Education Curator meet with PICA tomorrow, today I went to meet Participation and Public Programme team from State Library Western Australia and was very inspired by their projects, more to follow….
Hijacked III
Hijacked III is a photography exhibition and book featuring International artists within or from British and Australian. Providing a window into life in Britain and Australia, artists work is shown in unconventional juxtapositions, one minute your looking at portraits of people wearing mexican wrestling masks and the next moment your looking into Cardiff late on a Saturday night in all it’s glorious detail. Follow a Nuns religious journey through a photographer’s eyes, then turn your head to see the loss of relationships through the sales of second-hand wedding dresses….
Tony Albert, Title: No Place, 2009
Type C photograph, 80 x 80 cm, Edition of 5
Image hosted at Big City Press .com Australia (click photo for more details)
© All rights reserved Maciej Dakowicz, Pink Hat 2006
Click on the photo to see the artist's flickr set Cardiff at Night
The exhibition aims to Hijack your senses, and it clearly does. “The project comes with no agenda to answer the questions about whether there is an Australian or UK identity in photography. Instead it creates a framework that invites deconstruction and reflection while showcasing the socially, culturally, politically and aesthetically diverse practices and points of view from a wide selection of photographers who work within and outside the contexts of the two countries.” Louise Clements
Take a trip into the fantastic and foreboding worlds of artists from opposite sides of the globe. From oblique takes on portraiture and collage to snapshots of society at its best and worst, these far reaching photographic practices question what it means to look, catch or construct images for the 21st century. A fleeting glimpse into the life and times of both countries and beyond, Hijacked 3 disrupts the way you think about photography.
It’s on at QUAD & Derby Silk Mill until 6th May & PICA until 8th April.
