FotoFreo e-Newsletter
Issue 6: 23 March 2008
Dear Subscriber
Most of the exhibitions are now in Perth and installing the photographs will commence this week, after Easter. A reminder of how close to the event we are!
Copies of the programme have been received and are being distributed. They will be available primarily from the venues participating in the festival and at a number of other strategic locations around Perth.
However, with such a large and varied programme over many weeks, there are bound to be some changes or corrections and so I would urge you to check the website regularly.
The bus tours are now mostly worked out and you can read more details below. It has been decided to reduce the fare to $10, down from $15 as previously indicated. We have also designed a walking tour for both Fremantle and Northbridge. Maps of the walking tours will be available to download from the website by the end of this coming week.
In addition, we have been developing an ‘education pack’ and are keen to encourage teachers of photomedia to contact us in regard to making use of this material and the bus tours, which are free for teachers.
Editor
Pelican on paper and linen by Marian Drew
Marian Drew
Showing at the Fremantle Arts Centre is a major exhibition of Queensland based photographer, Marian Drew. Marian describes her art practice in photography and video as exploring the current relationships to time, domesticity, history and landscape. Her seductive, textural and sensuous photographs in this series at FotoFreo 2008, entitled Every Living Thing, highlight the clash between nature and culture. Australian native animals, having met their demise from being hit by cars, are placed within the context of the European still life painting, the artistic genre that has most represented domestic space for centuries. This disquieting photographic re-contextualisation emphasises the impact of human development and consumption in the degradation of environment and natural habitat. Reminders of the transience of life and its worldly pleasures, Every Living Thing offers us the opportunity to acknowledge and scrutinise the fragility of our unique ecosystems, which has seen Australia have one of the highest rates of species extinction since European settlement.
Read more about Marian Drew at the Fremantle Arts Centre
Catherine by Christophe Bourguedieu
Christophe Bourguedieu
Also at the Fremantle Arts Centre and shown for the first time in Australia, The Passengers, is the latest body of work from the French photographer Christophe Bourguedieu who produced this series during several trips to Perth between 2004 and 2006.
Bourguedieu’s world is a finely nuanced universe. Outside ordinary suburban streets and laneways are empty, while inside hesitant young men and women in timeless Australian interiors wait for a possible encounter. Despite the loneliness evoked in these images, the characters are poised and calm. They are modern heroes trying to cope in an imperfect world. Objects become portents to their undecided fate. A white vinyl sofa with faded red velvet cushions sits absurdly alone in a room. Paint flakes off the scratched exterior of a partially opened door. The quality of the light and the sensuality of the colours maintain a carefully considered atmosphere. We have entered what Max Pam has called “Bourguedieuland”.
Read more about Christophe Bourguedieu at the Fremantle Arts Centre
Untitled No 65 by Zhu Hao
FotoFreo and the Chinese Connection
As festival organisers, one of our objectives has been to focus on the photographers of Asia. Through the efforts of one of our directors, Brad Rimmer, we have developed some strong links with China and this resulted in the most significant exhibition of contemporary Chinese photography ever to come to Australia, Transformations: New Chinese Photography, to be shown at the Fremantle Arts Centre during FotoFreo 2006. Chinese photography will again have a major presence in FotoFreo 2008 with work from Chen Nong (Fremantle Arts Centre), Wang Gang (Film & Television Institute) and Zhu Hao and Shi Guorui (both at the Cullity Gallery). Chen Nong and Shi Guorui will be present at the festival.
Both Shi Guorui and Zhu Hao exhibited an image as part of the group show in FotoFreo 2006. Shi Guorui returns with 4 major new camera obscura (pinhole) works of iconic buildings in China and in his exhibition, Silent Shanghai, Zhu Hao explores the landscape of one of the largest and rapidly changing Chinese super cities to reveal the character of the built environment both old and new. Both photographers will be exhibiting at the Cullity Gallery commencing 13th of April.
Read more about the exhibitions at the Cullity Gallery.
Book cover image by Megan Lewis
Book Launch: Conversation with the Mob
From UWA Press comes a remarkable photographic record of Western Australia’s Martu people... Conversations with the Mob
Photographs and words by Megan Lewis
The official launch of the this important book will coincide with the exhibition by the same name at Kidogo Arthouse Gallery on Bathers Beach and consists of a selection of images drawn from the book.
Over six years, Walkley Award-winning photojournalist Megan Lewis lived with the Martu people - one of the last Indigenous groups in Australia’s vast Western Desert to come into contact with Europeans.
Lewis was warmly welcomed by the Martu, who subsequently told her stories of their history and allowed her to create this photographic account of desert living today.
The result is a stunning collection of over 200 photographs and oral stories. Conversations with the Mob captures the beauty, humour, sadness and friendship of a brave and resourceful Aboriginal community juggling the demands of traditional and Western cultures.
Megan Lewis emigrated to Australia from New Zealand in 1993 Reuters. She has worked for Reuters and at The Australian as a general news photographer. Megan’s photographic essay The Martu Mob won a Walkley Award in 2005
Published by Imprint: UWA Press, Hardcover: $49.95
ISBN: 978 1921491039
Bus tours
Because of the significant increase in the number of participating art galleries in the Perth metropolitan area, there will be a series of Coach Tours during a good part of FotoFreo 2008. These have been designed to visit primarily the more isolated core venues and others nearby.
The bus tours will be operating from Monday the 7th of April through until Sunday the 13th of April and there after during the weekends19/20 of April and 26/27 of April. If there is the demand we will consider additional tours.
Unfortunately, with over 60 venues participating in the festival it has not been possible to arrange tours to include everyone. However, comprehensive maps have been prepared identifying every venue. These can be downloaded and printed from the website. We would like to encourage viewers to organise their own tours – do the rounds, so to speak.
We are particularly keen to have teachers of both secondary and tertiary institutions interested in photography along on these tours so that, if they wish, they can arrange there own tours for their students. To this end we will provide a free tour to any teacher that wants to come along. All you need do is advise us of your intention and nominate the tour and date.
All tours depart and return from the front of the Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle. Travel will be via Cascade Tours 36 seater, air conditioned coaches. Each tour will be about 3 hours long. There will be one in the morning commencing at 9:45am and another (with a different itinerary) in the afternoon commencing at 2pm. Four galleries are included on each run. Guides will accompany each tour and provide information relating to the exhibitions prior to arrival at each destination.
The cost is $10 per seat (not $15 as shown in the programme) and bookings can be made by email mail@fotofreo.com or by phone 9335 9590. Tickets will be collected and paid for when boarding the bus.
Read more about the bus tours
Phynia by Dale Neill
Dale Neill wants you to Shimmy with Salome
Well known Western Australian photographer, Dale Neill, has been photographing belly dancers in Western Australia for many years. In his exhibition, Shimmy with Salome, he captures the erotic and exotic with the beauty and style of this Egyptian and Turkish performance. According to Dale, "There’s nothing complicated about belly dancing. Its simple, natural, joyful and loving. There’s no secret women’s business here. And there’s nothing too complicated about my photography. There are no hidden messages or meanings. All I’m doing is, hopefully, capturing the essence of the dancer."
Read more about how you can Shimmy with Salome at the X Wray Café in Fremantle.
Untitled by Genevive Morrissey
Genevieve Morrissey and Bon Scott come to FotoFreo 2008
For those not old enough to know these things, Bon Scott, the lead singer and co-lyricist of the rock’n’roll band AC/DC (1974-80), was a Freo lad. He even worked, rumour has it, as a fisherman. Bon Scott’s grave is located in Fremantle cemetery and is a popular tourist destination, particularly for American sailors. Recently Bon Scott fans commissioned a bronze sculpture of Bon and this was done by Greg James in his J Shed studio at Bathers Beach in Fremantle.
Perth based photographer, Genevieve Morrissey, has been documenting Greg James making his major bronze sculptural works, such as Bon Scott, for more than 12 months. Her exhibition, Putting it All Together, follows Greg and his team as they execute the many procedures required to take a concept from an idea through to a finished bronze sculpture. The Bon Scott statue will be in Greg’s studio at J Shed for the duration of the exhibition.
Read more
Untitled by Kostas Korsovitis
Kostas Korsovitis and UNIMA
Some of you will be aware of the 20th UNIMA congress to be held in Perth at the same time as FotoFreo. This is a meeting of the world’s puppet makers and a festival of puppetry. It is the biggest festival of its type and has never been held in the southern hemisphere before.
As a part of this event there will be an exhibition of photography documenting shadow puppetry as practiced in Indonesia. This work, entitled Wayang, is by Sydney based photographer Kostas Korsovitis. FotoFreo is pleased to be able to include this event in the FotoFreo 2008 calendar of exhibitions.
Wyang will be at the Perth Concert Hall from April the 2 – April 12
End Note
We at FotoFreo are extremely please at the response we have had from volunteers and there have been 2 induction evenings already. There is a Handling and Installation workshop on Tuesday the 25th of April. Thank you to all those that were able to attend the induction sessions.
To stay in touch, subscribe to the FotoFreo e-mail newsletter and we will keep you up to date with everything that is going on.
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