Uncharted-Anna Madeleine
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 18 December 2008 –8 February 2009
Anna Madeleine’s Artist Statement description of the work in Uncharted is commendably understated, but misleading.
That she has employed a range of media is obvious. That she has layered elements to create images of far away places and unknown characters is incontestable. That she offers us glimpses of life in seemingly abandoned public places is perfectly reasonable. But the existential themes underpinning the work seem far too big, too questioning, too full of yearning for such a young artist.
Madeleine is immersed in the culture of her generation. She is a traveller, she is involved in music and performance, she is a designer, photographer, video artist and painter. Anna Madeleine is a searcher and innovator. She employs diverse techniques with no obvious regard for the generally accepted boundaries of artform.
Is this wide subject interest and anarchic creative behaviour something we can expect from artists in the future? Perhaps in Anna Madeleine’s case it foretells a committed, questioning and imaginative young artist destined to make a significant career in the arts.
Madeleine was chosen for a 2008 Emerging Artist Support Scheme (EASS) residency at PhotoAccess principally on the basis of video work presented in the ANU School of Art graduating exhibition in December 2007. That and other video work is included this exhibition. The main body of work is new, however, and therefore made out of a need to make art rather than a need to meet the course requirements for an academic award.
Obviously acknowledging the impact of her graduating exhibition work, Anna was also chosen for EASS awards by Canberra Contemporary Art Space, M16 and the Alliance Francaise. In 2008 she will have presented work in three solo and four group exhibitions.
So between travel and work to finance the necessities of life, Madeleine‘s year has been very full. Yet there has been time for expressing a complex personal iconography in challenging and technically virtuosic work that PhotoAccess is proud to present in the Huw Davies Gallery.
David Chalker
Director
