Innovators 3

15 August - 14 September 2008

Victoria REICHELT
Bibliomania: The Bookshelf Portrait Project
2008

My practice investigates the painter's engagement with objects, and how the tension between painting and photography can be explored through studies of various collections of items. Objects that are either threatened or superceded by 21st Century culture and technology are examined through painting, so reflecting people's changing interests and examining broader cultural concerns.

My current body of work is based on photographs of bookshelves. These works are a paradox to paint, as once the books are an image on canvas they are shut forever and can never be read. In a painting they serve a very different purpose from their intended function - they are purely objects like any others, that have histories and narratives of their own, quite separate from the text inside them. These paintings are a collection of 'portraits' of contemporary Australian artists. Decisions people make about the books they choose to buy, keep and display reveal a considerable amount about them. Conventional portraiture relies on a visual representation of the subject, through which most of the information you get is about their visual appearance. However, photographing and painting someone's bookshelf reveals another side to them and offers a deeper insight into their interests and, in this case, the thoughts and ideas that frame their practice.

In drawing painting and photography together in these ways, my work not only explores the painters' relationship to the object, but also the ongoing tension between painting and photography, and the ever-changing balance of power between the two ways of making images.

 

 

 


image: Victoria Reichelt