256 Shades Of Grey - Barbie Robinson
HUW DAVIES GALLERY 8 April–23 April 2010
Barbie Robinson's commitment to the 256 Shades of Grey project began in 2004. Inspired by their contribution to the community, Barbie decided to take time away from her work as a teacher to focus on the remarkable stories, diverse backgrounds and interests of 12 women and men from Canberra and the region born before 1935. 256 Shades of Grey showed in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY from 12 December 2005 to 31 January 2006.
The project was assisted by the Seniors Grants Program, ACT Chief Minister's Department. Barbie Robinson conducted interviews, photographed the subjects and produced the images and digital stories during an eight week PhotoAccess residency, preceded by a long period of preparation. The enormous amount of time she gave to 256 Shades of Grey was entirely voluntary.
In early 2006 Barbie donated the exhibition to us for the PhotoAccess Collection. Since that time she has retired from teaching, shown in many group exhibitions, become an even more committed contributor to the Canberra arts community, produced portrait and other work for community organisations and business and, more recently, become an irreplaceable member of the PhotoAccess team. In this catalogue we reproduce the statement that accompanied the first showing of the work and her recent statement, which touches further on her motivation as a photo artist. Barbie Robinson's work is held in public, corporate and private collections in Australia and Pakistan. We are pleased to have 256 Shades of Grey in the PhotoAccess Collection and to be able to present it once again in the HUW DAVIES GALLERY.
David Chalker
