In the lead up to our second show of the year, Wallflower is thrilled to present a conversation between curator Kristian Haggblom and Georgia Metaxas.
Georgia the last
time you were in Mildura you gave a wonderful talk at La Trobe University Art
Forum Lecture series and Louis had an exhibition that included scanned found
notes. We had an amazing few days of photography talk until 14: 46 (Japanese
time) on the 3/11. What are your memories of that weekend?
A
heat wave followed by floods, treacherous roads and swarms of locusts. Family
albums with images of husbands in coffins, many many cups of tea and talk of
loss, memories, grief and sadness and the sound of locusts being swept away
from front doors. Then, came the terrifying crescendo of the events in
Japan. Our trip to Mildura in 2011, and
the events that occurred around us were nothing short of biblical !
Your photography
often teeters along the line of documentary and staged methodologies. This is
certainly not a new way of working but is very much “in vogue”, who interests
you at the moment that is working in a similar manner?
You
are quite right, there are a lot of photographers with similar methods and areas
of interest. Staged methodologies within the ‘real world,’ bringing it into the
framework of ‘documentary.’ Some photographers
whose work interests me include, Trihn Sondergaard, Broomburg & Chanarin,
Clare Strand. I was fortunate to see Katie Grananans work at Saatchi gallery
when in London last year. Her series Boulevard,
successfully achieves the tension that I look for in making work.
I often encourage
students to engage further with their subjects/subject matter rather than constantly
photographing their everyday surroundings and friends. How important is your
engagement with community throughout this project? And perhaps also the
sustained working technique?
My
work stems from the people around me, weather that be my family, friends or
people I am working with at a particular time. It is important to the work
however, that this remain a launching pad for a broader conversation, one that
does not just focus on an isolated individual, story or event. It is a
privilege to work alongside communities and organisations I enjoy the fact that
this means that I am constantly challenging myself and accommodating outside
factors in the work. I feel this definitely helps drive the work into a broader
domain.
Entering churches,
homes, nursing homes, etc with your “portable studio” you must have had
fascinating experiences, care to share one with us?
One
of the women who agreed to sit for me was an Italian lady, for whom wearing
black every day was only one of the ways that she demonstrated her level of
devotion to her deceased husband and to his memory. Photography played a
significant role in aiding to illustrate this dedication too.
In
the portrait I have made of her she wears a portrait of him around her neck, it
has been etched onto a gold plaque and resembles a hologram, only visible from
certain angles, very difficult to photograph. There are portraits of him dotted
all around their family home they been made using various methods. The same portrait
re-appears on the wall, framed conventionally, and also on the dinning room table
where it accrues a certain status. I imagine that this image may also appear on
the headstone of his tomb. There is also a photograph of the couple on the
mantle, etched into resin, it lights up like a rainbow in a multi-coloured kind
of fashion.
My
interest in the photos around the house did not go unnoticed and lead to a
conversation that revealed that they had met vicariously through photography. On
migrating to Melbourne his family had suggested that she might be a good bride.
As she was still living in Italy, they decided to both visit photographic
studios and have their portraits taken. He sent his portrait to Italy; she
approved and so sent her portrait to him in Australia. He wrote to her and
asked for her hand in marriage, she agreed and migrated to Australia where although
betrothed to one another they met in person for the first time.
She
showed me the original two original photographs. I like that the project is a
constant reminder of photography.
There is a constant
emergence of photography and especially portraiture prizes nationally/internationally,
I think a lot of these are dubious, what are your thoughts?
Competitions
are a complicated beast. I have had work selected and shown in numerous award
shows, so am aware of the benefits of being selected as a finalist. The work gets
seen in good company and in a professional manner. I was thrilled to have been
voted peoples choice at last years Bowness, there is something very humbling
about being the recipient of a democratic vote.
I do
however select and submit to competitions very carefully. There are some (generally
overseas) that attempt a grab at usage rights, others that may sound like they
have good causes or initiatives but on closer inspection have political or
social persuasions that do not necessarily align with me or my work.
Then of
course there is the cost involved. It is a given that it costs to produce the
work, but then to submit, frame and freight the work to a gallery is costly. After
some quick math you realise that if the prize money were divvied up between
each finalist each artist would receive an adequate artist fee!
It is
understandable that galleries need to raise revenue, however it would be great
to see galleries putting the art and the artists interests first, and be seen
to be encouraging discourse on photography rather than encouraging a
competitive field, which in itself, is questionable.
Black and blackness plays an important role
in photography, literally and theoretically, can I bother you to elaborate on
this quote; “The Mourners are absorbed by the void that is black, living
mementoes – vessels for mourning, fixed by a photograph, which in turn alludes
to a double death”?
Black encourages multiple readings
and allows for several entry points into the project. I enjoyed revelling in
this for three years, and should probably mention that it did take the entire
thesis to cover this ground! However I’ll attempt to get it down to a couple of
kernels here to help clarify the quote above.
Black reminds us of the photographic
process as well as a photograph’s inherent connection to memory, death and to
the representation of these rather immense themes. Black is also integral to the act of mourning,
the fact that this act is perpetual in The
Mourners is also an important consideration.
The quote you mention above refers to
the symbolic notions that come from this act of mourning and what it points to
photographically. The question I asked was, what happens when a living memento
is photographed? If the theorists are right (and we know who they are!) and all
photographs are “memento mori” is
this not then a doubling up of death?
A sitter’s presence in the series
immediately indicates an absence; that of the deceased for whom is mourned. In
fact her presence is governed by this absence.
The photograph envelops both the
mourner and the mourned. Therefor a mourner appears but also disappears,
hovering somewhere in-between, her own identity comes into question. A mourner
then, whose “life” has been erased by the ritual of perpetual mourning must now
die again at the hands of the camera. In this way she becomes, arguably, a
symbol of a double death.
Has
the mourners project now been completed? I know it was your Masters project
that was recently given the thumbs-up? What’s next? Want to hint at new
project/s?
Having never before studied at
university, I was pretty thrilled to have been awarded the Masters with only
minimal changes, mostly grammatical. It feels like quite an achievement.
I have finished making portraits for
the series, however, seeing as I’ve only ever shown a fraction of the work it
also feels incomplete. I’m looking forward to the right opportunity to be able
to do that.
It is a hard project to move on from,
however I am enjoying having a newfound perspective and understanding of my
work, which has come might I add from three years of navel gazing! I’m not
entirely sure ‘what’s next’ but am very excited at the prospect. My projects
have never come quickly and have always taken time, so this is far from a
pickle, quite the opposite.
Throughout
our Wallflower interviews we have been asking people to recommend what music
you would listen to or encourage people to while viewing the work – any ideas?
This question is a very difficult one to answer, as music instantly re-contextualises
the work, it feels weird! Anyhow, initially I was going to suggest Mozart’s Requiem, or perhaps Mogwai’s I know you are but what am I? Both
pigeonhole the work so I thought the only alternative is complete silence, at
the expense of sounding precious I was then going to suggest John Cage's 4'33. I then chatted to Louis about it
my conundrum. He suggested, actually he requested, a tune that he’d like his
brother (a pianist) to play at his funeral, Eric Satie’s Gnossiennes No.1 . Perfect, so
there it is.
'The Mourners' will open Friday March 8th from 5-7pm and run until April 6th.
Catalogue
download link: http://www.ccp.org.au/docs/catalogues/GeorgiaMetaxas.pdf
georgiametaxas.com
.jpg)
