Rennie Ellis: famous and infamous

Get to the State Library tonight and hear a lively conversation on Rennie Ellis, one of Australia's most prolific and gifted photographers, with a panel of speakers including:
Jill Singer, journalist and broadcaster; Manuela Furci, director of the Rennie Ellis Archive; Robert McFarlane, photographer and critic; Jenny Bannister, fashion designer and the subject of many of Ellis's photographs.

Wednesday 23 June, 6.00pm - 7.15pm
Free
Book online bookings@slv.vic.gov.au
Tel 03 8664 7099
Village Roadshow Theatrette
Entrance 3, La Trobe Street

Celebrated Melbourne photographer Rennie Ellis (1940–2003) created a significant record of Victorian life and culture over four decades in the later 20th century.

His images reflect the photographer’s passion for his home town and document Melbourne’s diverse street life, sporting events such as AFL matches and the Melbourne Cup, celebrities and highfliers as well as ordinary people, the party scene and daily life.

image:
RENNIE ELLIS
Hawthorn fans
Grand Final, MCG 1975
chromogenic print
Monash Gallery of Art, City of Monash Collection
Copyright © Rennie Ellis Photographic Archive

MGA exhibition nominated for Prix Pictet

Paul Dunn’s exhibition Imagined Communities, originally exhibited at MGA in 2009, has been successfully nominated for consideration by the judges of this year’s Prix Pictet.

Sponsored by the Geneva-based private bank Pictet & Cie, the Prix Pictet is the world’s first prize dedicated to photography and sustainability. It has a unique mandate – to use the power of photography to communicate crucial messages to a global audience. The theme of this year’s prize is Growth, which resonates strongly with Dunn’s interest in the ‘growth corridors’ of Australian cities.

War Photo Limited

Interview: Wade Goddard / curator and director of War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia from Zorye Kolektiv on Vimeo.
Wade Goddard is a New Zealand born curator and director of War Photo Limited gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Wade talks about his work as a photographer working primarily in conflict zones since his arrival in Croatia in 1992 and the role of War Photo Limited.

It is the intent of War Photo Limited to educate the public in the field of war photography, to expose the myth of war and the intoxication of war, to let people see war as it is, raw, venal, frightening, by focusing on how war inflicts injustices on innocents and combatants alike.

Also see the related articles here http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/5251/1/E-War-Photography-Museum-in-Dubrovnik.html

Joachim Froese

Joachim Froese is exhibiting in The archetype of photography at the Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk. Curated by Krzysztof Jurecki and Ania Szynwelska the show will also feature work by Ken Matsubara (Japan), Grzegorz Przyborek (Poland. The exhibition will open on Friday, 18 June 2010 at 7 pm and continues until 29 September 2010. http://www.laznia.pl/index.php?idDzial=9&idWpis=555&status==

Christian Thompson Survey Show

Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi has just slipped this survey show into its program, after something else fell through, but it's an inspired 'filler' - not to be missed!

"Christian Bumbarra Thompson, a Bidjara man of the Kunja Nation, is a photographer, conceptual and performance artist. He is a third wave Indigenous Australian artist whose work and unique experience come from an emersion in the social and cultural zeitgeist of the 80s and 90s as an Aboriginal person. His work is a leading force in the exploration of issues of identity, race and history in Australia. In 2009 Thompson completed a DASARTS residency (Advanced Studies for Performing Arts) in Amsterdam and a residency at The Centre for Future Art Research at Arizona State University, USA. He will be the first Aboriginal person to attend Oxford University after recently being awarded the inaugural Charlie Perkins Scholarship for International post-graduate studies and will undertake a residency at Blast Theory Art Collective in the UK in August 2010. This survey show brings together photographic and video work from the last 10 years of Christian Thompson’s impressive career." (Press release)

-Stephen Zagala

Bowness Photography Prize: 3 weeks to closing

Photographers from all over Australia have less than 3 weeks to enter the 2010 The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize.
The MGA Foundation will once again showcase the work of Australia’s best photographers in one of Australia’s richest photography awards.
Each year, finalists are drawn from the breadth of Australian photographic practice: editorial, commercial, street and fine art.
In 2010, photographers will be competing for $25,000 first prize and $1,000 People’s Choice Award.
This year’s entries will be judged by Gael Newton, Senior Curator of Photographs, National Gallery of Australia, Max Pam, Australian photographer, and Shaune Lakin, Director of MGA.
Closing date: 30 JUNE 2010
Download entry forms http://www.mga.org.au/bowness-prize

Georgia Metaxas

Georgia's new and improved website is worth a look. As a so-called 'straight' documentary photographer, her work is often understated. But, bit by bit, her practice has developed a remarkable gravity that is quite striking when viewed as a whole. She's currently working on a new series of portraits, and looking for subjects, so help her out if you can. And she'll be one of the artists featured in HIJACKED 2 - AUSTRALIA/GERMANY, on show at MGA, 28 Oct 2010-16 Jan 2011.
-Stephen Zagala

TTBOOK: Boots on the Ground: Covering the War

For all podcast listeners this series from NPR is a great insight into the war in Iraq and excellent reference for MGA's current exhibitions, Icon & archive and The wire: photographs by Lyndell Brown and Charles Green

Errol Morris made a documentary about Abu Ghraib called Standard Operating Procedure. Journalist Philip Gourevitch and Morris have written a companion book that examines what really happened at Abu Ghraib. In this podcast Gourevitch talks with Steve Paulson and gives not only a disturbing account of US policy in Iraq but puts forward a ‘philosophical meditation on what photographs can and cannot tell us about the truth.’


To listen to this edition go to: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/njn/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1655426&pid=1172&sid=11

To subscribe to this highly recommented series go to http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=4819402

The real meaning of engagement

When was the last time you were truly engaged with an exhibition? I mean in a receptive, timeless and selfless state of wilful, absolute involvement of mind and emotion?
If you’ve visited MGA recently, chances are this has happened to you. It’s been apparent over the past weeks that visitors to Icon & archive: photography and the world wars are not ‘seeing’ the exhibition—they’re experiencing it!
Amanda

Bring In Your Memorabilia Day

They came alone, in pairs and in groups, some nervous and others unsure if their questions could be answered, but also proud of their family-member’s contribution during times of war. Gently, they carried softly yellowing photographs, medals hanging from a rainbow of ribbons and hand-written letters, postcards and diaries from fathers, uncles and grand-fathers, barely legible through the passage of time.

These personal treasures and their caretakers made their way to MGA last Saturday for a very special event: four experts from the Australian War Memorial in Canberra had come to visit for Bring In Your Memorabilia Day.

For four hours Kate Dethridge, Curator of Photographs; Dianne Rutherford, Acting Curator, Military Heraldry & Technology; Helen Butler, Conservator, Paper & Photographs and Dr Karl James, Historian provided advice to over 140 visitors.

The age, origin and significance of the treasures were common queries with some visitors having only recently discovered photographs that had been hidden away. For many, their items were in need of care and they left armed with tips and suggestions to ensure their preservation for future generations. Some came away with a sense of relief, their queries answered, others with yet more questions.

MGA would like to extend its thanks to Kate, Dianne, Helen and Karl for their time and expertise, the Australian War Memorial and also the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Commemorations Program for their generous funding and support of the day.

Whilst there is just six weeks remaining to see Icon & archive: photography & the World Wars there are plenty more events to come, check out our events calendar for more details.

Image:
Kate Dethridge & Dr Karl James provide advice to gallery visitors
© Monash Gallery of Art 2010 photo: Stephanie Richter

$25 000 Bowness Photography Prize: 4 weeks to deadline

Photographers from across the country have 4 weeks left to enter one of Australia’s richest art prizes.

This year the first prize is $25 000 (non-acqisitive) with an additional $1 000 People’s choice award.

Entries close 30 June and photographers will need to complete an entry form available from our website: http://www.mga.org.au/bowness-prize/entry

The Bowness Photography Prize attracts a range of work from photographers across the country. There are no thematic restrictions and the competition is open to all analogue and digital photography.

Entries this year are coming in from a broad cross section of photographers - ranging from documentary photographers to fashion and nature photographers, as well as strong representation from contemporary artists.

The winner of the 2010 Bowness Photography Prize and Honourable Mentions will be announced on Thursday 23 September 2010 during a cocktail party held at MGA.

A visit to Sydney

A trip to Sydney over the next few months can include a feast of contemporary art at the 17th Biennale of Sydney, The beauty of distance: songs of survival in a precarious age.

The Biennale includes a broad range of artworks by Australian and international contemporary artists. The works are displayed in seven venues throughout Sydney, with its primary sites being the Museum of Contemporary Art and Cockatoo Island.

Amongst the diverse array of art forms and media in this year’s Biennale are some photographic works. For instance, the first room on the ground floor of MCA is taken over by a large installation of photographs by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu from China. Their work, Hong Kong intervention 2009 is a project in which the two artists invited 100 Filipino domestic workers to take a toy grenade and photograph it in their favourite spot at their workplace. These photographs are displayed alongside back-view portraits of the participants. The photographs are presented in a grid that extends almost to the top of each of the tall walls in this space.

A number of Roger Ballen’s photographs are on display in the convict precinct of Cockatoo Island. The run-down building that houses them is an eerie setting for Ballen’s surreal and disturbing images. Ballen’s Biennale display includes a selection of his documentary works as well as his staged compositions, some of which were included in the exhibition of his photographs at MGA last year. Along with his Biennale installation, Ballen’s Boarding House series is showing at Stills Gallery in Sydney until 29 May.

Yvonne Todd’s photographic portraits are also displayed in the convict precinct of Cockatoo Island and take over an entire cottage. They are not hung on every wall of the old and deserted building or grouped together in a straight hang. Instead they are scattered around on different walls as if they were family portraits hung in a domestic setting. Todd’s photographs draw on the conventions of traditional portraiture and require a second glance in order to note their strange and unsettling qualities. The unnatural and eerie nature of Todd’s portraits is accentuated in this setting on the Island.

Hiroshi Sugimoto’s installation, Faraday Cage 2010 includes black and white light boxes from his series Lighting fields and is based on his recent photographic experiments into the imaging of static electricity on large-format film. The installation was conceived specifically for Cockatoo Island’s abandoned Power House.

The Biennale also includes works by some of MGA’s collection artists including Christian Thompson and Brook Andrew.

Also in Sydney for the next few weeks is Bill Henson’s latest exhibition at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Paddington. It is a series of large photographs that juxtaposes sublime images of seas, waterfalls, skies, ancient ruins, statues and a female model. It is definitely worth a visit and will be on display until 2 June.

Stella Loftus-Hills

Image:
Cai Guo-Qiang
Inopportune: Stage One 2004 (detail)
Collection of Seattle Art Museum, Gift of Robert M. Arnold, in honour of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum, 2006
Courtesy Cai Studio
The presentation of this project was made possible with the assistance from Shiseido