My work employs a considered and deliberate approach, a conceptually inspired rendering drawn from the chaos of reality. A central theme in my work has been the manifestations of ritual as I am drawn to rituals both cultural and personal. Their relationship to portraiture and to photography integral to the work.
The Mourners as it happens unites all lines of investigation. Death, remembrance and mourning were not taboo topics in my family home, my mother a Greek migrant widowed at the age of 36. However unlike the women in this series who have engaged in a perpetual act of mourning, she chose only to observe the customary 40 days of wearing black.
The Mourners are absorbed by the void that is black, living mementoes – vessels for mourning, fixed by a photograph. Or are they? As a mourner once photographed becomes contained in a complex set of relations between the mourner & the mourned, this extending to the photograph itself where the mourner herself becomes a mute symbol of both absence & presence. The Mourners in effect, questioning identity and representation, the veracity of the photographic image and a photographic portraits relationship to time.
I am in my mid 30’s and currently live and work in Melbourne, Australia. A selection of The Mourners was recently exhibited at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne and at the Ping Yao International Photography Festival, China. A mourner was selected as a finalist in the Bowness Prize, Melbourne and in the National Portrait Prize, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. I have presented several solo shows around Australia and my work is held in both public and private collections.
Georgia Metaxas
Weekend portfolio selected by Diane Dufour
