Pornography and Photography

A series of three exhibitions which appeared to erase or at least redraw the boundaries between art photography and pornography was seen at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney in 2003. Helen Grace talked to Alasdair Foster, Director of the ACP and curator of one of the exhibitions, about this timely and challenging project.

Published June 2004

New Home for University Art Museum

Mayne Centre, University of Queensland
Opened 15 April 2004

Published June 2004

In The Vein

Gallery 25, Mildura
April 18  June 6, 2004

Published June 2004

Now, Beauty: Cover or Re-Mix

Perth Symposium, various venues
19 - 21 March 2004

Published June 2004

Holy, Holy, Holy

Flinders University Art Museum
20 February - 17 April 2004

Published June 2004

Suburban Edge

Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney
5 March - 18 April 2004

Published June 2004

Group Material

Ben Booth, Neil Haddon, Anthony johnson, Anna Phillips, Lucia Usmiani and Kit Wise
The Queen's Warehouse Gallery
Tasmanaian museum and Art Gallery, Hobart
18 March - 2 May 2004

Published June 2004

Consuming Pleasure

Published June 2004

Chaotic Attractors: Jake Chapman Lecture Tour 04

The two hours of Jake Chapmans lecture at the Capitol Theatre in Melbourne in March 2004 were in many ways a homage to Modernism and the aesthetic of industry - albeit back-handed. The hierarchies of art history, the possibility of the poetic and the tradition of humanism all came under attack. The core issue circled around throughout the discussion was the degree to which art was simply a diversion for the middle-class: a market-responsive product or cathartic moment in which people could be and even pay for the privilege of being shocked.

Published June 2004

Captive Bait: The Work of Jose Da Silva

This essay looks at the work of Jose Da Silva, a young Brisbane artist whose work explores the way pornographic images and acts of violence shape gay male subjectivity. Da Silva underscores the way sexual violence is repeatedly fetishised and performed in gay porn, and by extension queer culture. Da Silvas work is bait, designed to lure an audience with its amateur porn pull. Once captive, an audience finds itself figuratively trapped in a seedy backroom where sexual violence is not simply patterned on recognisable social problems like homo hate crimes and/or gay male domestic violence.

Published June 2004

Enchantment/Disenchantment: The 2nd Auckland Triennial

The generic theme for the 2nd Auckland Triennial Public/Private sought to address central issues concerned with the relationship of the visual art scene to that of the everyday life (to banality), the potential or otherwise of new technologies to engage with the conditions of modern society and the ability of art to deal in specific ideas of a social and political nature. Furthermore in bringing together artists projects that are cross-cultural and transgenerational, the curatorial aim was to make connections which would intensify the privacy debate. Edward Hanfling examines some of these works with regards to such issues and concerns.

Published June 2004

The Perverted Gaze of the Artist: Recent Work of James Guppy

James Guppy has a curiously ambiguous place in contemporary art. This is not because of his subject matter, but rather because of his technique. For the most part Guppys recent work is not about fun, nor is it even really about sex. Rather he argues it is about the nature of exploitation. He argues that artists by their nature are voyeurs who see the world around them and all its objects as items to be used as visual product. His recent Peeping Box series taps into this idea where images of sexual activity with a particular sadistic overlay are presented behind thick glass to incite some vain attempt on the part of the viewer to engage in such voyeuristic acts.

Published June 2004