Curatorial Detail & Preview | Siri Hayes

Siri Hayes has an affinity for the in-between spaces at the edge of cities, suburbs or towns. She has photographed amongst these spaces extensively in Australia and also Korea, Japan and more recently Barcelona. Often a river or creek cuts through these urban/landscapes and a good example and influential body of work for this project is Siri’s Lyric Theatre shot along Merri Creek that runs through Melbourne.  The following quote by Kate Rhodes from the Benalla Art Gallery catalogue makes good reference to, not only Siri’s photography, but other projects completed for __on this site:

“Processes of destruction and construction are co-dependent and necessary for a future world, however, as we see in Hayes’ work, sometimes the equilibrium is out of kilter. The problem of rubbish in utopia is an eternal one: who gets rid of it, where to store it, how to get everyone to do the ‘right thing’. The solution is a balancing act so as to find a way for these things to co-exist, but in a way that we can still define them. Although a truism, there is no production without waste and no beauty without ugliness…”

Stolen cars are often burnt along the creek in remote locations. Siri’s wonderful burnt-out car – obviously a Holden Commodore – was at once very recently new, but now, rubbish.


www.sirihayes.com