Nicole Robson examines domestic life by depicting people at home. On closer examination, a sense of strangeness begins to emerge from the work. The light seems too bright, the decor too contrived and the characters too rigid. These images – seemingly of everyday – in fact depict carefully composed scenes.
Nicole’s settings are created from scratch, the furniture is purchased at second-hand stores, and the models are dressed, made up and directed in order for the image to appear like ordinary snapshot from family life. Yet her subjects are at odds with their surroundings and it is her intent that they picture through her manufactured façades. Nicole states that the work “hovers on the edge of believability to allow a narrative that is uncomfortably unnatural.” It is through these elaborate mise en scenes that Nicole attempts to examine our social identity through the guise of materialism.
Keeping Up Appearances was chosen as part of the renowned reGeneration2 exhibition and publication. Curators William Aewung & Natalie Herschdorfer state: “Nicole Robson plays with a sense of ambiguity. Are the characters directed? Do these people really exist? The calculated blur between reality and fiction, reflects a critical concern regarding the so-called objectivity of documentary photography.”
Nicole’s recent exhibitions include Pane, a collaboration with performance group MADE, presented in Hobart, Launceston and Brisbane as well as groups shows at CAST Gallery, The Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney and The Edmund Pearce Gallery, Melbourne. In June 2010, Nicole travelled to Lausanne, Switzerland to participate in reGeneration2: tomorrow’s photographers today, launched at the Musée de l’Elysée the exhibition toured China, South Africa, USA, and France. In January 2011 Nicole received a Marie Edwards Travel scholarship to attend the opening and folio review at the Aperture foundation in New York. This exhibition also included a publication of the same name, printed by Thames and Hudson. This year Nicole was selected as a semifinalist in the Headon Portrait Prize, Sydney and was selected as one of 10 emerging artist to be highlighted in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.
Keeping Up Appearances
September 26 – October 13, 2012
Opening reception: Wednesday, September 26 / 6-8 PM
Lvl 2 Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street (cnr Flinders Lane)
Melbourne Victoria 3000
Australia
Wed-Sat 11-5 pm
