Head on Photo festival: BACK TO THE GARDEN
Rowan Conroy. Glasshouse study # 1 pigment print on cotton rag edition of 5 + 2 AP, 410 x 560 mm, 2012
Recent exhibition @ Chapter House Lane Melbourne:
ATHINA
CHAPTER HOUSE LANE
1 March - 1 April 2012
OPENING NIGHT 6-8pm thursday 1st March, please join us to celebrate the opening: http://chapterhouselane.org.au/location/
Virtual Room Sheet
(far left window) Untitled # 8, from the Series Athina 2010 pigment print on cotton rag paper
1100 x 1800 mm edition of 10 + 2 artists proofs $1850.00 ea
610 x 900 mm edition of 10 + 2 artists proofs $1200.00 ea
(middle window)
Untitled # 5, from the Series Athina 2010 pigment print on cotton rag paper
1100 x 2540 mm edition of 10 + 2 artists proofs $2200.00 ea
610 x 1250 mm edition of 10 + 2 artists proofs $1450.00 ea
(far right window)
Untitled # 3, from the Series Athina 2010 pigment print on cotton rag paper
1100 x 2400 mm edition of 10 + 2 artists proofs $2200.00 ea
610 x 1250 mm edition of 10 + 2 artists proofs $1450.00 ea
Artist Statement
These three images from the series Athina, depict the high-density construction endemic to the modern day metropolis of Athens where I lived for 10 months in 2010. During this time, I became increasingly fascinated with photographing Athens from the natural vantage points of Lycabettus and Philopapou, two spurs of rock that arise in the central suburbs of Athens. From these elevated perspectives the urban landscape of Athens takes on the appearance of calcified accretion on the earth. These three images, present the viewer with a horizon-less, abstract ‘all-over’ rendition of Athens from on high. My interest in the organic patterns and self-organisation of the urban landscape was the motivation for this series, a subject that is not unique to Athens, but Athens exemplifies this phenomenon in a particularly stunning fashion. The high-rise concrete apartment block is the most common architecture in Athens, similar designs are endlessly repeated, with minor genetic variations. In observing this I began to think how much the city is analogous to the structures made by non-human life forms such as ants, corals or lichen. Humans too are colonies of organisms that grow and replicate and eventually spread across the land, in this case inhabiting every available crevice. These images are a call to contemplate the physiognomy of the built environment. The look of such urban density conjures in our minds the current concerns about sustainability, climate change crisis, and population growth. This is all the more potent given the historical weight given to Athens as the birthplace of European civilisation.
The concept of photography as a means to record the archaeology of the present was central to my recent PhD research. The archaeology of the present can be defined as the recent past manifested in the physical material culture of the present. The archaeology of the present addresses the archaeological potential of everyday sites of human work and habitation and contemporary ruins. Evidence for the archaeology of the present is ubiquitous. The continual unfolding of history is witnessed in the sediment of the everyday. In these images from Athina, we come face to face with the visual outcome of decades of modern development, Athens' own archaeology of the present, and one that is quite distinct from its classical past.
Past exhibition @ Barometer gallery Paddington:
