SMART THINKING
A new exhibition blends the work of an early 20th century artist with modern dance.
A new exhibition blends the work of an early 20th century artist with modern dance.
Born in Adelaide in 1879, artist Bessie Davidson studied with Margaret Preston before moving to Paris, where she lived and exhibited, rarely returning back to Australia. Contemporary Australian artist Sally Smart is Davidson’s great-niece. “The influence of Bessie Davidson on my identity as a young artist was profound,” Smart says. “The knowledge of a professional woman artist existing, who I was related to, informed my early imaginings about being an artist.” Now Smart has created a cross-disciplinary video installation exhibition representing Davidson’s relationship with Preston – her flatmate in Paris and rumoured lover – as part of an exhibition showing Davidson’s ‘modern French Impressionist’ artworks. Says Smart: “The exhibition aims to shed light on the lives and experiences of the women artists of the early 20th century through contemporary means.”
• Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart –
Two artists and the Parisian avant-garde Bendigo Art Gallery
20 March – 21 June, 2020 bendigoregion.com.au/bendigo-art-gallery
Amajor new photography biennale, the first of its size and scope ever to be undertaken in Australia, is coming soon to Melbourne and regional Victoria. The inaugural biennale, PHOTO 2020 International Festival Of Photography, will present inspiring new photography from Australia and around the world. It will feature over 120 artists across more than 40 cultural institutions, museums, galleries and outdoor sites in a varied series of free programmes and exhibitions.
“PHOTO 2020 is a huge celebration of new photography and new ideas,” says PHOTO 2020’s artistic director, Elias Redstone. “A series of new commissions – most of which will be presented on the streets of Melbourne – will bring the city alive with inspiring art.
“It will be an exciting time for people to think about the role photography plays in our lives.”
The theme of PHOTO 2020 invites artists, curators, writers and academics to explore the critical relationship between photography and truth. Photography is subjective, and the choices photographers make shape how we view the world. While the veracity of the photographic image has always been contested, today the relationship between what we see and what we believe is more complex than ever.
“Exploring the power of truth in photography is more important than ever in our current social, political and cultural climate,” says Redstone. “We have curated a considered and compelling line-up of photographers and artists with diverse life experiences to reflect on what the truth means to them.”
As part of the biennale, 33 artists have been commissioned to present new work, including Victorian artists Kate Golding, Laura Delaney and Gunditjmara artist Hayley Millar-Baker. Other artists being commissioned by PHOTO 2020’s programme partners include South Sudanese-Australian artist, Atong Atem. Atem’s exhibition for PHOTO2020, To Be Real, will be held at the Immigration Museum. Atem is known for exploring migrant narratives, postcolonial practices in the diaspora and identity through portraiture. Her dynamic compositions are drenched with colour, pattern and potent visual references.
These scenes reference the ways in which we construct personal and collective narratives, in an interplay of truth, reality, drama and artifice.
• PHOTO 2020 International Festival Of Photography, various locations, 23 April-10 May, photo.org.au
CULTURE PHOTO 2020