Last Weekend to See Australia’s Newest Photo Biennale
Exhibiting from 29th April – 22 May, with some events extending into June, the world class photography biennale PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography will see Melbourne and regional Victoria play host to some of the world’s most remarkable photographic projects.
Produced by Photo Australia in collaboration with cultural institutions, museums, galleries, across the region, the biennale brings together inspiring new photography, art and ideas under the broad, richly fertile theme ‘Being Human’.
Now in its second edition, PHOTO 2022 honours 123 local and international artists and photographers across 90 exhibitions, with 50 world premieres including 24 specially commissioned projects.
PHOTO 2022 Highlights: Solo Exhibitions
Five contemporary Heroines feature amid the diverse festival programme, contributing works from iconic self-portraiture to crucial documentary series. Here are six events to keep an eye out for as the biennale approaches its final weeks.
CINDY SHERMAN – Untitled Film Still
Untitled Film Still, one of the most recognisable images from Cindy’s legendary Untitled Film Stills series, will be installed across the entire Flinders Street facade of the Atrium at Fed Square, overlooking Hosier Lane. Integrated into the urban landscape, the image is the largest single work at PHOTO 2022. Until 22nd May
GILLIAN WEARING – Editing Life
Inspired by documentaries, reality television, and the performative nature of identity, Gillian frequently turns the lens on herself. In this exhibition, Gillian used artificial intelligence and age-processing tools to depict her possible future selves. The work contemplates uncertainty and the nature of ageing in the contemporary world. Until 22nd May.
HODA AFSHAR – Speak the Wind
In Speak the Wind, Hoda explores the islands off the southern coast of Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz. Using photography and film, she documents the beauty of the landscape and the rituals and lives of the region’s communities. Until 26th June.
POULOMI BASU – Blood Speaks: A Ritual of Exile
A critically acclaimed series, Poulomi’s Blood Speaks: A Ritual of Exile is a transmedia activism project which reveals the social, emotional, and physical consequences of normalised violence against women, perpetrated under the guise of tradition in Nepal and India. In particular, it exposes how the ritualistic expulsion of menstruating women and girls compounds their experiences of violence and injustice. Until 22nd May.
PHOTO 2022 Highlights: Group Exhibitions
INDU ANTONY – A Bell Rings Across the Valley
In A Bell Rings Across the Valley, five artists from across South Asia and its diaspora have been brought together to represent complex experiences of identity, heritage, and change. Focusing her work on the body as a site of representation, particularly in a feminist context, Indu explores ‘tonalities of inward discussions which later on [burst] out into the communal spaces’. Until 26th June.
EMERGING ARTISTS – New Photographers
Photo Australia’s showcase of Victoria’s most exciting emerging photographers returns with seven artists who ‘bring new perspectives to the human experience, photography and visual culture.’ Curated by Photo Australia, the exhibition features the work of Isabella Darcy, Rachel Main, Jake Nemirovsky, Jahkarli Romanis, João Marco Deloie, J Davies, and Olivia Mròz. Until 22nd May.
