Triple effect: Margaret Whitlam Galleries host three exhibitions for summer viewing
Charlotte Dawson, by Steven Savona
The University of Western Sydney’s Margaret Whitlam Galleries will celebrate the New Year with three separate, evocative art exhibitions.
The gallery spaces, located inside the historic Female Orphan School Building at the Parramatta campus, will host the All Most Famous and Perfect Looking exhibitions as well as a collection of works from the University’s own Indigenous art collection.
All Most Famous, in Gallery 1, is comprised of a selection of photographic works taken by UWS students as part of the Spring 2012 Photo Journalism unit of study.
Dr David Cubby, a Senior Lecturer from the UWS School of Humanities and Communication Arts, says as part of their assessment students were encouraged to find ‘someone famous’ or ‘nearly famous’ to photograph.
“Photo Journalists are not paparazzi. They are required to approach people with respect and to engage them to ‘perform’ in a way that composes well in the camera and delivers the meaning, the truth of any given situation,” says Dr Cubby.
“It was a challenging task, which required students to go beyond the usual bounds of production required within class.”
Mime Artist, by Karishma Prakash
The twenty images chosen for the All Most Famous exhibition feature a range of well-known faces including Delta Goodrem and Charlotte Dawson.
The exhibition will be complemented by Perfect Looking, a collection of photographic images produced by David Cubby himself.
Each image provides a realist snippet of a range of human experiences – from a Parisian boulevard; to the “Muza” theatre in Poland; to a road on the way to Heathrow airport – all with the theme of looking, or being seen.
The images feature anonymous guests in a far away art gallery; a Polish couple with a well-documented love of cinema; and a “perfect looking” woman who “off camera, appeared and felt different.
Like an Eagle, by David Cubby
In describing his collection, Dr Cubby says: “This is the only world I can know and, for now, we are looking perfect.”
Finally, gracing the walls of Gallery 2 and 3 are a collection of works by Rosângela Rennó and Rea Saunders.
UWS Curator, Ms Monica McMahon, says the University purchased the works by Rea Saunders from her first solo exhibition, Ripped Into Pieces, in 1995, and from the group exhibition Blak on Trak in 1998.
“Within this series, Rea is trying to change and reclaim language, essentially the racist connotations in using the work ‘black’ to indicate a person’s race,” says Ms McMahon.
Rosângela Rennó’s, Vulgo (Alias) installation was the culmination of a visiting fellowship at UWS in 1999, and were first exhibited at The Australian Centre for Photography.
These photographs originated from glass negatives in the Sao Paulo Penitentiary Archive, Brazil, which were identification photographs of prisoners, taken between 1920 and 1940.
Maria and Bogdan Kalinowski, by David Cubby
WHAT: Margaret Whitlam Gallery trio of exhibitions
WHEN: 10am-4pm Monday to Friday, by appointment. Call 4620 3450
WHERE: Margaret Whitlam Galleries, Female Orphan School, Parramatta Campus, Corner of James Ruse Drive and Victoria Road, Rydalmere
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