Part of the group show ‘The way we talk (about it)’, at Brunswick Temporary, 26 Nov to 17 Dec, 2022.

During the long lockdowns, I often visited the Melbourne General Cemetery, walking among the graves in solitude and contemplating the porcelain cameo portraits set into the headstones. Over time, I began to document these grave portraits, sentimentally framed by bouquets left by loved ones. Gradually, I built a photographic archive of these commemorations—an archive of images of images—that extends my ongoing interest in transforming found images into alternate archives.

The series is presented as 35mm positive slides that rotate through a carousel slide projector, producing a flickering archive. This temporal display foregrounds the paradox of absence and presence inherent to the photographic medium. As Roland Barthes writes, “Death is [its] eidos.”

Installation views of ‘Absence, Presence’, 35mm slides, Kodak carousel slide projector, timber, 2020/2021, editions of 5 + AP.
Part of the group show ‘The way we talk (about it)’, at Brunswick Temporary.