[tension]
seduce – entice – invoke
Opening in New York at Caelum Gallery
rex-livingston+corlette fine art Sydney
2001
A spectacular exhibition of contemporary Australian
photography, [tension] features the work of three
artists working within the cultures of craving.
Frances Mocnik, Robert Young and Marzena Wasikowska. The
exhibition explores the seductive qualities of
photography in relation to ideas of femininity,
tensions between beauty and pain, and the disclosure
of the self through the camera, by the artists and
non-artist alike.
The three artists image three
different pockets of the external world ? Marzena:
angst-ridden adolescents, Frances: cosmetic and other
tools of glamour, Robert: the rhapsodic dancers body.
In each one, the artist concentrates on a microscopic
element of human experience to reach into the depths
for where their universal qualities are revealed.
Crucial to the exhibition is the notion of the
inextricable link between the photography and
seduction. The works are very sexual, always alluring
and at times slightly sinister, with a glamorous and
highly polished aesthetic. The artists indulge in the
sheen and staged aesthetic which is the legacy of the
camera – the result is a decadent, luscious collection
of works which is also an investigation of the
seductiveness of the camera itself and the fantasies
that it makes possible.
The exhibition revels in the Australian fascination
with the double-edged appeal of photography, embracing
the dark and light facets of both the surface and the
content of the photograph.
[tension]
Caelum New York.
www.caelumgallery.com
Artist Statement – Robert Young
Collection: Tension
This body of work, Tension, is a meditation on memory—how it flickers, shifts, fades, and sometimes distorts. These images speak to the echo of events long past, still playing out in the mind like an old reel of film. There’s a particular darkness in remembering. A kind of quiet erosion that happens over time. Was it really like that? Or was it more vivid than we can now comprehend?
Photographed in black and white, I chose to print them in a way that allows the black to bleed beyond the frame—mirroring the way memory seeps and stains. Some pieces feel like whispers of terror. Others, a sense of liberation. Haunting grief and death to religious overtones. And some awaken a naïve, almost innocent, kind of sexual tension.
This series sits at the intersection of photography, drawing, and emotion. Each image is both a record and a suggestion, revealing and obscuring in equal measure.
Print Options Available:
- 8″ x 10″ (20.3 x 25.4 cm) on 240gsm Lustre Photo Paper – $87
- 16″ x 20″ (40 x 50 cm) Fine Art Print on 100% Cotton Rag – from $245, with framing options
- 20″ x 28″ (50.8 x 71.1 cm) Fine Art Print on 100% Cotton Rag – from $429, with framing options
Special Edition:
Select works from Tension are also available as limited edition T-shirts.