Photography Exhibition | Hijacked III / Australia
Bindi Cole
Hijacked III is a major survey exhibition and publication featuring innovative photographic talents from or within Australia and the United Kingdom. Known for halting the status quo, arresting the scene and exploding a new perspective on the practices of contemporary photography, this third edition of the biennale Hijacked series explores the world through the eyes and works of 35 international photographers pushing the boundaries, experimenting, and recontextualising the art-form.
Photofusion is delighted to present a selection of the Australian photographers chosen for the original exhibition (Derby, Quad March 3 – May 6, 2012) exposing many of them to London audiences for the first time. From oblique takes on portraiture to snapshots of society at its best and worst, these far reaching photographic practices question what it means to observe, catch or construct images for the 21st century.
Warwick Baker
The theme of the personal is prevalent in the exhibition. Michelle Tran uses photography to create a visual diary, in order to explore her own identity through a blending of documentary and staged tableaux. Her work investigates concepts of self-representation and subjectivity. In contrast, Katrin Koenning's project Near is an intimate portrait of her family, which explores the complexities and challenges of love, distance and belonging. This ongoing work is a comment on the structure of a modern, western family; spread across four continents, dealing with tragedies and everyday life. Toni Greaves turns her camera on the personal life of a young woman who has chosen monastic life; documenting the first three years of her life becoming a nun.
Toni Greaves
Bindi Cole's work is tender study of "Sistagirls"; the term used to describe a transgendered person in Tiwi Island Culture. The film (which will be shown at a special screening during the course of the exhibition) is a document of a community which has suffered in the face of colonisation. Christian Thompson also draws on Indigenous culture and motifs as inspiration in his photographs. His subjects occupy a mythological world, clad in contemporary clothes covered with indigenous motifs, emphasizing the theme of disparity between the old and the new.
Katrin Koenning
Other work exhibited focuses on environmental issues Australia faces. Warwick Baker photographed several flood affected areas in Queensland and Victoria, creating beautiful, surreal landscapes which highlight the issues facing the inhabitants. Michael Ziebarth's photographs are of vegetation that is encroaching on man made buildings; the organic shapes become natural made sculptures, reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. Justin Spiers turns his camera on zoo enclosures, examining both the relationship between humans and animals and the power we have over them, and our construction of the natural world.
Michelle Tran
Petrina Hicks uses the aesthetic of advertising photography to create unsettling images. For her, photography's capability to both create and corrupt the process of seduction and consumption is of endless interest. Tarryn Gill and Pilar Mata Dupont also play with the medium of photography with their short film, which explore ideas of the fascist body aesthetic, its use in propaganda and the cult of the heroic sportsperson in Australia.
Michael Ziebarth
Hijacked III exhibition and book was curated/edited by: Louise Clements, Artistic Director of QUAD and FORMAT International Photography Festival UK, Mark McPherson, founder of Big City Press, Australia, and Leigh Robb, Curator of Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia.