Bill Henson is considered one of Australia’s greatest living photographers. In his latest exhibition Henson has taken on the role of curator choosing around 100 works from the large collection held by the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA) to present an eclectic mix of images spanning the evolution of photography in Australia.
The MGA is known as the home of Australian photography and its collection is regarded as one of the most comprehensive. Initially Henson viewed the collection electronically, flicking through thumbnails to make his first cut. Once he’d narrowed his selection, the images were taken from the archive and laid on the floor of the gallery where Henson shuffled them around, mixing and matching based purely on aesthetic appeal.
Henson says he approached the task of curating the exhibition “without the desire to pre-conceptualize my selection. In fact if this exhibition had a concept, it was to not have a concept”.
The final cut of “Wildcards” features works from the 19th Century as well as more contemporary photographers. On the walls, which Henson had painted a dark charcoal grey to create an immersive atmosphere, are photographs by David Moore, Wesley Stacey, Mark Strizic and Ingeborg Tyssen amongst others. There are also photographs by renowned Australian painters Albert Tucker, and also Norman Lindsay who photographed many of the models who sat for him in the early decades of the 20th Century.
“I didn’t approach the selection with any linear narrative progression in mind,” explains Henson. “The photographs do carry within them an indelible imprint, which speaks to us of their time, place and outlook. This is applicable to those photographs dating back to the 19th Century as well as more contemporary times. So at that level, there is of course an historical dimension to the show, but it was not something I set out to construct.”
The majority of images are black and white, save for a tiny cyanotype from the late 1800s and a minor collection of colour photographs. Hung in small groupings Henson has paired images from various eras, styles and artists with great success, and his pairing of large scale and smaller works creates interesting visual associations. These photographs also show the evolution of the photographic printing process with bromoil images and albumen as well as silver gelatin and chromogenic prints.
There are also groupings by single artists such as David Moore whose iconic images of Sydney in the 1940s are amongst the strongest works. On the rear wall of the main gallery is a large display of black and white photographs from Wesley Stacey, whose work appears intermittently throughout the show too. Stacey also has works on display in an adjacent gallery, so the prominence of his work feels like overkill. But as Henson says this exhibition “is entirely my taste, my interests and my feelings that are on show here”.
“One of the messages I wanted to convey is that there is no correct way to view a photograph, just as there is no correct way to listen to Mozart or to look at Rembrandt. One cannot overstate the importance of the priority of individual experience. There’s only your way and in the case of this exhibition, my way,” he concludes.
Wildcards: Bill Henson Shuffles the Deck
Until 30 March, 2014
Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne
860 Ferntree Gully Road,
Wheelers Hill
Australia
http://www.mga.org.au
