Light Moves: Everyone Has A Story
Exhibition
Group exhibition at Baillieu Library, The University of Melbourne, 2007
Overview
About the exhibition
The works in this exhibition represent the culmination of studies carried out in the subject ‘Light Moves’ during the final year of the Bachelor of Creative Arts program. This subject focused on how artists and photographers utilise and manage light to establish atmospheres. Each artist planned and conducted a research project centred on light and exhibited a curated selection of their final pieces for public review. They were urged to delve into complex lighting scenarios and conceptual concepts, including the techniques photographers employ to manipulate dynamic areas for creating pre-envisioned effects. This exhibition encouraged discussions bridging aesthetics, science, and technology.
Artist's statement
Rationale
The series revolves around the theme of ‘superfictions’ – fictional identities and Indian familial and domestic culture. I invite people to view the images as a visual documentary that, like photographs, validates a person’s life. The process of creating a ‘photo’ without a camera while attempting to create a ‘truthful’ rendition of an event or scene, questions the accuracy of memory, observation, and the medium itself. Normally, the camera is the primary tool for capturing a moment.
While not working in the same medium, in terms of conceptual content, Mary Schepisi has been an inspiration as she explores fictional identities in her paintings and drawings. Several 20th Century photographers, such as Man Ray with his exploration of rayographs, used photograms. Others who experimented with photograms and whom I researched include László Moholy-Nagy and Christian Schad, who referred to them as “Schadographs.
Gallery
Artist technique
Texture and line are the primary aesthetic qualities I emphasise in this series. I experimented with artistic materials to achieve tonal gradations and detail, including pen, pencil, crayons, and pastels. The images were drawn on paper and then photocopied onto overhead transparencies. These transparencies were exposed and processed in the darkroom using an aperture of 8 and a filter of 4 ½ to achieve a stark black and white contrast.
The photographic technique employed is known as a ‘photogram,’ which combines both the sciences and the arts. It is often used for artistic expression, producing a wide range of designs and imagery, often with a surreal quality.
Here, the eye and memory function as recording tools, and the processing technique becomes the objective element. The metaphor of ‘writing’ one’s own memories, surface identity, and the exploration of the individual through the representation of everyday lived experiences are subjective, reflecting the nature of the represented medium itself.
Exhibition Enquiries
If you are seeking to book Purnima for your exhibition, commission a unique artwork, collaborate on a project, or require more information, please reach out.