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september 5 - 23

Without subtitles

Pamela Rataj and Scott Connell

Connell has developed an eclectic body of visual poetry through the process of automated collage. Redolent of the surrealist automated writing, Connell has allowed the mind to wonder furtively in the absence of critical intervention.

By pulling literary fragments and pictorial images from their original context Connell has developed a body of work that is liberated from both time and place. Snippets of conversation and prose play with shadows, objects and structure.

Rataj’s seven intimate sculptures and works on paper conclude Without Subtitles. Her work is an investigation into the surface of the body.  The skin is a multilayered, multipurpose organ than delineates the boundary between the outside and in.

Embedded into the quiet work is the notion of the skin’s fragility. Our subsequent upholstering of its surface gently shields the skin from external factors. Consequently the clothing of the exterior can also protect the outside, from the turmoil of what lies beneath the skin.

Rataj graduated from the sculpture department at the Victorian College of the arts in 2002. Connell holds a Ph.D. in Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Physics and he currently lectures in Melbourne.

Landslide   

by Jane Poynter

Landslide comprises 300 small scale photographs and 14 large scale prints. Through content and scale, Poynter redefines the notion of traditional landscape photography.

Poynter has moved away from the traditional epic representations of the landscape.  The images are presented en masse to give a sense of the overwhelming superabundance of photographs created in the world everyday.  Each photograph is unique, but often only subtly different from the image next to it or to an image elsewhere in the room. The further use of small text in the images rewards those viewers who step in for a closer look.

The included text combines diary entries from actual and imagined journeys which Poynter has made through the landscape. Her documented travels are not only a metaphor for journeys, but also a quest to find an identity within the landscape, a common quest for many non-indigenous Australians.

The series of large scale works abandon the constraints of scale and proportion. This process highlights the fragility of the photographic image as a truthful artifact. Traditionally the Australian landscape has been depicted as an unfathomed expanse with arching blue skies. Poynter has captured the detail that is missed from such images: the reality of the ground.

Encompassing galleries 2 and 3, Landslide is the summation exhibition to Poynter’s Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne. It is the culmination of research undertaken by Poynter since 2000.