Curated by Lisa Edwards, an exhibition of still and moving images in which the landscape — in its natural and urban forms, or as depicted in painted backdrops — is the setting for performative actions, often of a peculiar or absurdist nature.
Victoria
Storm in a Teacup curated by Wendy Garden explores the disjunctures that arose through the imposition of one culture upon another on the colonial frontier, tea drinking ceremonies in Asia within a western Orientalist paradigm, the ceramics industry and the environmental ramifications the appetite for porcelain tea sets created, gender stereotypes and the socialization of children, familial cohesiveness and social disconnect.… Continued
Polixeni Papapetrou’s The Ghillies is presented in a solo exhitbion at Benalla Art gallery. Papapetrou engages part reality, part fantasy moving through the landscape, using the rich terrain as a backdrop for her narratives about the transitional space of childhood. Papapetrou’s art practice has involved an intimate collaboration with her children and their friends for over a decade. As they have grown and transformed, so too have the roles they perform and spaces they inhabit.… Continued
In the solo exhibtion Dreamchild, Papapetrou explores different aspects of childhood and the child’s imagination through the roles, archetypes and performances as acted out by her six-year old daughter, Olympia. Papapetrou’s photographs rework the theatricality and vivid tableaux style of Lewis Carroll’s images of Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and other child subjects such as Xie Kitchin and Irene McDonald who participated in costume dramas before his camera.… Continued
In the solo exhibtion Olympia Masked, Polixeni Papapetrou explores the iconology of childhood through the production of a body of photo-based works about her 5 year old daughter Olympia. Olympia is photographed wearing a variety of half masks which partly conceal her face. The masks allow her to enter into other territories and enable her to cross boundaries, thus raising questions regarding the portrayal of the ‘real’ and the ‘imaginary’.… Continued