Hijacked, FotoFreo 2008
Artsource (Old Customs House) Fremantle
April 5 – May 4
Review by Thelma John for Artlink
FotoFreo 2008 was another inspiring photo immersion, spreading way beyond the Fremantle boundary this year. Amongst the 30 odd exhibitions, major shows by big shots Roger Ballen (South Africa) and Edward Burtynsky (Canada) sat harmoniously alongside wonderful surprises like Fig (by young London artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin) and San Xia (by Chen Yong, staged images of those made homeless by, but required to work upon, China’s Three Gorges Dam project). Of the Australian content, a number of solo shows attracted enthusiastic responses (especially Brook Andrew, Marian Drew and Stephen Dupont) and Megan Lewis’ Conversations With The Mob oozed authenticity. However it was a group show of Australian and American talent that caught my eye amongst the abundance of evocative imagery that bombarded us, over the month of May.
Hijacked is an exhibition and a book, put together by local photographer/curator/publisher Mark McPherson and his mentor Max Pam, (who is an inspiration for the realisation of this international festival of photography that graces the village Fremantle biennially). The venue for Hijacked was the cramped and labyrinth-like hallways and office walls of Artsource, the representative body for visual artists in WA and the site of our largest clutch of artist studios. Not a great venue (despite the great work that goes on in this building), yet the crush of other viewers and prints nudging each other added a sympathy to the sense of unease that came across so strongly in the work.
It is good to be close up and personal with a photograph. These modest images in frames are personal, often unassuming. They work very well as a collection, almost as a narrative. The project developed from a history of zine production and the 44 photographers are mostly emerging, although that is stretching it for some. The converging perspectives of a bleak vision from both the American and Australian contributors is no surprise but the tenderness and humour that comes through the images leaves me with a sense of hope. A sad mother and daughter in a car, piles of dirt, scarred and unsightly naked bodies, a girl wearing a bunny head with a gun, another with a rifle aiming at something from her idyllic perch in a perfect jungle garden setting (unspoiled nature) leads to lots of images of strange human animal friendships, odd pets, odd pairings, crumbling rooms, crumbling nature, disturbing suburbia, the Mall, wild parties, innocents in their school uniforms, tattooed bulges, lots of breasts, girl urinating, boy sleeping, the desolation goes on and it feels like it is seen through the eyes of the young, slightly damaged, fascinated, appalled, accepting. It’s a celebration of freaky normal people and I can feel the breath of Diane Arbus’s caressing my shoulder.
The wild is tamed or tolerated; the elements work hard to deconstruct the constructed world. But the people are the focus and so many of them have an up-front attitude - it pervades the show. Perhaps the minimal viewing distance dictated by of Artsource’s corridors makes for an extra intimacy. I am hoping it was just as good to view in a more salubrious venue such as the Australian Centre For Photography where it was on show in July. The book (available online from
www.keithandlottie.com/view/Hijacked+Vol.1/1110/
www.tmp.acp.org.au/catalogue
www.idnworld.com
www.bildschoene-buecher.de
maintains this integrity as books do, since you sit with them and give them your attention, in a kind of bubble.
I see the value in exhibitions which place works by outstanding Perth artists in a bigger arena with like-minded souls from other parts of the world. I like these young fellows who stick their necks out to publish a book on borrowed money and even more I like the images selected and the way they sit together to remind us of the universality and joy of our experience of growing up, of our bodies, our homes, our public selves, of street culture and more than one coyote eking out a kind of life on the edge of ours, where coyotes don’t belong.
All photographs courtesy of Cheyne Tillier-Daly © 2008.
Cheyne Tillier-Daly's Photographs of the original Hijacked books launch and exhibition at Old Customs House, Fremantle, during the 2008 City of Fremantle Photography Festival are fantastic. Many thanks to Michelle Taylor and Cheyne Tillier-Daly for getting some amazing photographs. Now I want to share them all with you. A bit belated, better late than never, these photographs show the youthful enthusiasm for the show. The exhibition opened on April 5 and ran until May 4th, 2008. All photographs courtesy of Cheyne Tillier-Daly © 2008.
Our new Hijacked Advert is in Photofile Magazine no. #84, is designed by the maverick Tom Müller and the photograph, Trasheaters is by the lovely Amy Stein.
Hijacked is available to purchase online at:
Australia & New Zealand (& the rest of the world)
http://tmp.acp.org.au/catalogues/
Asia
http://www.idnworld.com/
Europe
http://www.bildschoene-buecher.de
A few months ago Jack Pam from Map Films invited photographers Toni Wilkinson, Ben Sullivan and myself to contribute a photograph to his project - Potential of Space - a live artistic collaboration between photographers and artists. The collaborating artists Meredith Earls, Creepy, Trevor Richards and Sean Morris hit the large scale printed photographs with their own styles of painting and illustration. After several hours in the late autumn sun and into the night, the artists brought new life, vigour and fresh interpretation to the original photographs. As part of the fotofreo festival 2008, I believe this was one of the most interesting events and typified the relaxed Fremantle zeitgeist. It was great to see some fresh and vital atmosphere injected into the Festival program. Punters were treated to live art paintings and illustrations, whilst relaxing in the sun,pleasantly drinking cool beverages, and surveying the process of artistic creation, with the Indian Ocean cast as the appropriate backdrop. Good times.
I have attached the process and hope you can dig it as much as I did. It is very reminiscent of a project I did in 2004 called Isolated - Funkstörung Tiple Media.
All photographs by Max Kordyl.
Tod Seelie's exhibition, Slow Dancing To Slayer, will open at Cinders Gallery on July 17th and run until August 9th, 2008. Tod is pretty excited about this, as the show will feature work from different series (OfQuiet.com and EveryDayILive.com) that he has been working on for years. Check it out!
Also keep your eyes peeled for a photo feature from his travels on the Mississippi River in the next issue of Death & Taxes Magazine.Word! -ref: Tod Seelie -
This Sunday, July 13th on ABC TV - Sunday Arts is featuring Hijacked. The program is on at 5pm, and Hijacked has an 11 minute feature. Thanks to Emma Watts for believing in the project. For those people abroad, the show can also be downloaded from the ABC Website. For those in Australia, check out channel 2, Sunday 5pm, July 13th. It is also scheduled to be broadcast at different times on ABC 1 & 2 for the next two years. Hopefully by then you might have seen it, or be sick of seeing it. The short feature doco looks at the project retrospectively and from a multitude of perspectives. Enjoy!
Photo: Mark McPherson & Max Pam, Courtesy of Jack Pam from Map Films.
