HUW DAVIES GALLERY 8 December 2011 to 29 January 2012
 

Images: Natalie Azzopardi, Clover and Cat

PhotoAccess offers residency opportunities to a number of artists each year. An aim of the residency program is to assist emerging artists to develop their practice and present work to a wider audience.

Support for artists in residence includes PhotoAccess membership, use of facilities and equipment, access to courses and workshops, help with grants applications, mentoring and advice, technical and creative support and, in some cases, exhibition opportunities.

PhotoAccess is a strong supporter of the ANU School of Art’s Emerging Artists Support Scheme (EASS): two of our residencies each year are awarded to School of Art final year graduates. Natalie Azzopardi and Katherine Griffiths are our residents from the 2010 graduating year. Support from the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy allows us to help emerging artists show their work as part of the HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions program. For many this is their first solo exhibition, helping build a bridge between their student and future lives as contemporary visual artists.

Unlike many of our artists in residence, Natalie Azzopardi has been a consistent visitor through 2011. She has used the darkroom and other facilities and participated in several courses. The work in 'Beyond the Laughing Sky' has a connection with PhotoAccess, but a much stronger link with Azzopardi’s imagination. She says it is:

'… a frozen world, preserved and presented as a ‘Wunderkammer’ or cabinet of curiosities … I have combined many different elements from my past including pattern and objects, which embody a memory, time or place, creating a delicate imagery with the unrealistic colour of the imagined or remembered. Nostalgic and sentimental, this work aims to remind viewers of the simple happinesses'.

We need more reminders of the simple happinesses.

Natalie Azzopardi has given us a thoughtful and evocative reminder in 'Beyond the Laughing Sky', her first solo exhibition. The process of painting the exhibition images also reminds us of a time when the hand had a more important place in photography. We are proud to share Natalie Azzopardi’s 'Beyond the Laughing Sky' with visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.

David Chalker

Catalogue

HUW DAVIES GALLERY 8 December 2011 to 29 January 2012
 

Images: Katherine Griffiths, Pip and Pip #2

PhotoAccess offers residency opportunities to a number of artists each year. An aim of the residency program is to assist emerging artists to develop their practice and present work to a wider audience.

Support for artists in residence includes PhotoAccess membership, use of facilities and equipment, access to courses and workshops, help with grants applications, mentoring and advice, technical and creative support and, in some cases, exhibition opportunities.

PhotoAccess is a strong supporter of the ANU School of Art’s Emerging Artists Support Scheme (EASS): two of our residencies each year are awarded to School of Art final year graduates. Katherine Griffiths and Natalie Azzopardi are our residents from the 2010 graduating year. Support from the ACT component of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy allows us to help emerging artists show their work as part of the HUW DAVIES GALLERY exhibitions program. For many this is their first solo exhibition, helping build a bridge between their student and future lives as contemporary visual artists.

Katherine Griffiths had a very busy year in 2011, with two residencies, two solo exhibitions and work in five group shows. Naturally Beautiful' is her first solo exhibition in a public art gallery and a good finish to the year.

The idea for the exhibition was first discussed with us early in 2011. It was unclear then how she might successfully and without sensation tell a story of the societal pressures on girls, as she says:

'… aged between 12 and 13, an age where [they] begin to shape their identity through physical appearance and body image. At this age, they are vulnerable to the various constructed ideals of beauty that are projected by the media and general pop culture'.

That Griffiths has done so effectively and with such subtlety and sensitivity is a tribute to her conceptual and technical skills. Her wall images reference the apparent need young girls have to project a more alluring and grown up image, an image that can lead to danger. The accompanying short film, Dance with me, is not quite so subtle as it points to the sexualisation of girls through the influence of pop culture and social media.

PhotoAccess is proud to present Katherine Griffiths’ 'Naturally Beautiful', including her short film 'Dance with me', to visitors to the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.

David Chalker

Catalogue

Images: Ollie Barrington and Susan Henderson (joint winners Access all areas 2011 peoples' choice award) 

Access all areas 2012: The PhotoAccess Members Show
 

The first members’ show for 2012 is Access all areas from 3 to 20 May. Entries close on Friday 20 April so get on with it!

The rules are slightly different this year

For this show you may enter up to two works. There is no size restriction but we reserve the right not to hang work if it is likely to disadvantage others, if it is too heavy to be safely hung or if we deem it unsuitable. Works may be framed or unframed but all framed work will be hung in the Multimedia Room.

We encourage members to show new work and so images should be made no earlier than January 2011.

Each entry must be a single image on one piece of paper—no montages, no diptyches or triptychs, no collages. This does not mean you cannot create work using different source images, but the final image should be recognisably one image rather than a collection of separate photographs. Please talk to us before entering if you are in doubt about this guideline. You may of course enter one or two panoramas.

Alternatively you may present a photo book. In this case the book must be available as a browsing copy for gallery visitors to look through. Gloves will be provided if you wish.

The entry cost for up to 2 photographs or for 1 photo book is $20.

Wall works and books may be for sale. Our commission is 25%.

Entries must be made and paid for online by Friday 20 April

Entries may be delivered to PhotoAccess from 10am 24 April to 10am 1 May

We will be hanging your work on 1 and 2 May for the opening at 6pm on Thursday 3 May.

Unsold work may be taken on Sunday 20 May at 4pm or within a fortnight of the closing date.

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