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1 - 9 of 9
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(2005)Creative Work (non-textual)The conventional photographic genre of the nude as a compliant and passive female body dominated photography for more than 150 years. In the latter part of the twentieth-century new advances in science, biomedical and related technologies combined with new critical discourse around the image allowed for the possibility of re-invention and re-imagining the body as a photographic representation. This research recognizes the nude as a site for contested meaning, social transaction and cultural engagement in photographic practices. The self-portrait Woman and chaise longue by Debra Phillips addresses the multiple and changing meanings depending on context and perspective generated by the imitation of an image carrying specific historical information. In doing so, the image is in part an act of playful homage to the seductive presence of the female subject while it also engages with the medium of photography as a bearer of histories—‘official’ or public as well as private and idiosyncratic. This work was completed as a component for the series One thing leads to another, which was funded by an Australia Council New Work Grant $20,000 (awarded 2002) and was exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2006). Its significance is attested by its selection for the Citigroup Private Bank Australian Photographic Prize (2005) held at the AGNSW, Sydney. One thing leads to another also provided the basis for an invitational public lecture presentation at the 44th Society for Photographic Education Conference, Miami, USA in 2007.
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(2003)Creative Work (non-textual)New electronic and digital technologies enlarge both the realm of the visible and the means by which it is represented and in doing so bring into question the long-held belief of photography’s indexical relationship to the Real. This research examines the disjuncture between technologically mediated representations of land and the photograph as a direct description of a referent in the world. The Untitled diptychs by Debra Phillips address questions of how changing technological imaging methods impact on the way we view the world by the use of Landsat images overlaid with Australian flora and other natural and artificial materials. In so doing they emphasise the fluid relationship between the representation of digital data, how we see, and how we interpret photographic information. The significance of this research is that it positions satellite imagery of the earth from space with other materials to create new photographic images that question both the processes and methods of taking photographs while at the same time questioning the use of photographs as source material for the production of visual art works. Its value is indicated by the following: inclusion of three diptychs in Points of View: Australian Photography 1985–95, which was held at Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2005; support for Landsat imagery provided by the Australian Landsat Station, Division of National Mapping, Department of Resources and Energy; and inclusion of works in the collections of Polaroid Australia, Polaroid International, Boston, USA and AGNSW.
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(2007)Creative Work (non-textual)New electronic and digital technologies are providing innovative platforms and contexts for contemporary photo-based visual arts practices and their relationship to society while, concurrently, critical discourse suggests a dilution of the social agency of images in the world at large. This research examines the extent to which the meaning of photographic content can operate on multiple levels by questioning how we perceive, encounter and reflect upon the world around us through an examination of the historical, social, political and aesthetic operations of photographic images. The photographic series Trees near Amiens, Trees near Fricourt, and Barrière de la Villette by Debra Phillips address the material, technological, ontological and epistemological parameters of the photographic medium and the extent to which these parameters can be communicated through the presentation of different photographic subjects that have been individually framed and installed across a gallery wall as a suite. Presented as a set of relational image components, the works encourage an alternative viewpoint to the single photograph as a primary form or means to convey isolated content. The works were produced during an AGNSW residency in the Moya Dyring studio at Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (awarded 2005) and were completed as initial research for an Australia Council New Work Grant $20,000 (awarded 2006). The significance of the works is attested by their inclusion in the major group exhibition Perfect for every Occasion, Heide Musuem of Modern Art, Melbourne (2007). The work is also included in the chapter Debra Phillips in Twelve Australian Photo Artists (Piper Press, Sydney, 2009).
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(2005)Creative Work (non-textual)Animation ordinarily begins with fabrication whether using models, drawings or cell painting. The more recent introduction of digital technologies has reinforced this focus on the construction, representation and animation of both realistic and fantastic scenarios. Research in recent animation techniques therefore focuses on processes and methods that assist with fabrication. John Hughes’ research into animation processes and techniques uncovers methods that combine traditional animation techniques – stop-frame – and ‘found’ rather than fabricated objects. His research opens the field of contemporary animation to both tangible and intangible objects pre-existing in the environment. Removed is an innovative animation in two respects. First, on a technical level its stop-frame techniques capture found and ready-made scenes and objects in the environment in order to construct a narrative. Second, in using stop-frame animation it enacts a physical process to capture an intangible figure – that of the shadow. In its techniques it embodies a new approach to animation that places contemporary digital preoccupations with the fantastic and intangible alongside the tangible material world of objects and physical labour. Digital and traditional animation are shown to share some similarities in subject matter and approach rather than being oppositional. The film was shown at the Sydney Film Festival 2006, also featured in Figuring Landscapes: artists’ moving image from the U.K and Australia and was subsequently exhibited at the Dundee Contemporary Arts, FACT Liverpool, Vivid, Birmingham, Showroom Sheffield, Glimmer, the 7th Hull International Short Film, Capter Arts Centre Cardiff, Site Festival, Stroud Valley Artspace, Cinecity – Brighton Film Festival, Mermaid Arts Centre Wicklow, Ivan Doughterty Gallery Sydney, Gallery of Modern Art Brisbane.
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(2007)Creative Work (non-textual)Photographic practice is traditionally divided between photojournalism and fine art photography. In the genre of landscape photography, these two areas are usually separated in their approach to photographing ‘real’ events on the one hand, and spectacle and beauty on the other. Recent photomedia practice-based research has demonstrated representation of landscape is embedded with political and social visual codes. Lynne Roberts-Goodwin’s research contributes to debates in this field by also demonstrating that the visual representation of landscape can draw on fine art aesthetics without compromising its social and political content. The series of four works, Call it Home 1-4 were the outcome of research conducted in Southern Iran, a site of both cultural/political conflict and paradoxically aesthetic beauty and spectacle. Presented as a series, the images formally progress through the disjunction between panoramic format and monumental scaling of the denuded yet picturesque landscape. The images capture this paradox, demonstrating that photojournalistic content and aesthetic techniques – traditions usually separated in Western visual cultural codes – can occupy the same visual plane. The work Call it Home 1-4 within the 2007 series Random Acts, was supported by an Australia Council New Work Grant and a UNSW/COFA, Faculty Research Grant in 2006. Works from Random Acts also formed key press and catalogue profiling and were written on and reviewed by: Annemarie Lopez, 'Lynne Roberts-Goodwin', boxoffice, the(sydney)magazine, SMH, issue 48, April 2007, p. 102; Andrew Frost, 'The Anne Landa Award', Photofile, issue 80, winter 2007, p. 65 and Uros Cvoro, ‘The choice of random acts’, Random Acts, catalogue essay, Sherman Galleries, Sydney as well as being covered by international media.
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(2005)Creative Work (non-textual)The portrayal of animals in photographic practice traditionally focuses on details of expression, foliage and environment, relying on genres of human portraiture. Art-based photomedia practices can both question and work with the conventions of ‘nature’ portraiture and photography, often revealing its anthropomorphic biases. Roberts-Goodwin’s photomedia research investigates these issues of anthropomorphism while also contributing to new codes and conventions for the documentation of wildlife, animals and nature. The photographic works Border series acknowledge the histories of photographic representation and interpretation of the animal within human visual culture, especially photographic portraiture. It is innovative insofar as it challenges many of the archetypes of pre-established animal portraiture. Through monumental scaling of the animal body and representation of a denuded landscape within the photographic image, the animal as subject, in Roberts-Goodwin photographic research on portraiture, challenges and significantly questions the nature of our role as human spectator. The works Border series from the 2005 larger series ‘Disappearing Acts’, was supported by an Australia Council New Work Grant and a UNSW/COFA, Faculty Research Grant in 2004. The work has been exhibited in solo exhibition Disappearing Acts at Sherman Galleries, Sydney and in group exhibition Voiceless: I feel therefore I am; Sherman Galleries. The works were written on and reviewed by Charles Green, ‘We are all animal now’, Voiceless: I feel therefore I am, Catalogue, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, Joanna Mendelssohn, ‘Disappearing Act’, Artlink, vol. 25, no. 2, 2005, p. 99.
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(2007)Creative Work (non-textual)Wild life photography typically captures images of animals and birds in their native habitat and focuses on details of expression, foliage and environment. Art-based photomedia practices can both question and work with the conventions of ‘nature’ portraiture and photography, often revealing anthropomorphic biases. At the same time, by creating images of wildlife, artists may also contribute to the archival project of preserving our knowledge of endangered species. Roberts-Goodwin’s photomedia research asks how it might be possible to combine both a revelation of anthropomorphism and contribute to ethical issues surrounding the human relation to endangered species. The work Bad Bird #12 and the Bad Bird series comprised the visual aesthetic and exhibited outcomes of research related to endangered species and the inversion of the traditional genre of wildlife portraiture. The research conducted with the Australian Museum’s Department of Ornithology, contributes to the identification of endangered avian species via plumage, markings, and relative differences between the portraits in upper-body proportions. Each ‘portrait’ faces away from the camera, confounding the viewer’s desire to project human characters and temperament onto the bird. The Bad Bird series was supported by an Australian Council New Work 2003 Visual Arts Grant, a UNSW Faculty Grant and supported by the Andy Warhol and Rockerfeller Residency at the IEA (Institute of Electronic Arts) New York University, Alfred, New York, USA. Twenty works from this series (80 works) were exhibited at a solo exhibition at Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney ( 2003) and Fosdick Nelson Gallery, New York, USA.
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(2003)Creative Work (non-textual)Accurate transnational identification, tracking and surveillance of falcons is a matter of historic and contemporary concern in the Middle East and West Asia. Considerable research has been carried out to control the cross-border falcon trade and to conserve the sub-species of these animals. Conversely, the contemporary place of portraiture, and of reproductive technologies, in these predominately Islamic cultures offers a unique intersection of western technology with traditional Islamic culture. This research explores problems connected to photographic identification within the emerging field of animal passports and cross-border security via an investigation of the falcon in the Arabian Gulf, offering a unique approach to the visual representation of the non-human body. The Azure series consist of 27 large-scale mural metallic photographic images that investigate the aesthetic importance of animal portraiture and the scientific underpinnings and relevance of biometric facial recognition as applied to animals, specifically avian species. Through the application of innovative photographic and biometric imaging techniques the work offers first comprehensive study of the animal portrait as an agent of verifiable identity as applied to surveillance and authenticity. This project solves photographic identification problems associated with the emerging concept of animal passports. Using technical innovation in order to interrogate the shifting status of the animal body and associated codes of representation and conventions of photographic portraiture within Western and Oriental photography. The significance of the Azure series is demonstrated by their acquisition by the MCA, Sydney, display in solo shows at the United Arab Emirates Cultural Foundation, UAE and Sherman Galleries, Sydney and inclusion in the group exhibition The Artist Abroad at the ACP, Sydney.
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(2004)Creative Work (non-textual)In Latin American cities such as Bogota, private buses feature heavily in the profile of mass transportation available to the urban populous. The small business-people who own and run these buses heavily customise and modify the generic designs of their vehicles. Such “mods” are said to reflect the personalities of their owners: each bus is unique in its decoration, colouring, interior design, bodywork, and “face”. The Colectivo Ejecutivo research group, led by Ross Harley, was comprised to document, analyse and re-present these forms in the context of art, design and popular mod culture. Working with the anthropomorphic personality of these buses in the context of an urban visual anthropology, the research team have catalogued and revealed a custom-culture that is in stark contrast to the regime of standardisation that presently dominates the global metropolis. The series of lightboxes, paintings and objects presents an important intervention into the way we perceive the dynamic and personalised spaces of contemporary global culture. It also sheds new light on a custom-culture that is being challenged and replaced by the imported designs and auto-mobilities favoured by local government authorities. The significance of the work is attested to by its selection for inclusion in the important national exhibition Salon Nacional at the Museum of Modern Art, Bogota; its inclusion as a featured work in Art-Basel-Miami 2004; and its exhibition in significant commercial gallery exhibitions at Casas Riegner Gallery, Miami, and Galeria Diners, Bogota.