Stargazing brings together a selection of contemporary photographs that guide us towards the stars, the planets and celestial spaces in poetic, experimental, playful, conceptual, and often quite abstract ways.
Through a variety of photographic processes and experimental techniques, often incorporating analogue technologies or archival imagery, the artists in this exhibition evoke, transform and play with celestial scenes. They delve into ideas about the universe and our place within it, challenging expectations of photography to explore the cosmos from felt, imagined and self-referential perspectives. While alluding to realms that exist beyond Earth’s surface, these artists encourage us to reflect on themes that remain tightly connected to human experience and the planet in which we live. These include environmental issues, interconnectedness, identity, spirituality, time, memory, mortality and the nature of photography itself.
Showing works from MAPh’s significant collection of Australian photographs alongside loans from artists, Stargazing features work by Amos Gebhardt, Michaela Gleave, Anna Higgins, Harry Nankin, Trent Parke, Luke Parker, Patrick Pound, Michael Riley, Kate Robertson, David Stephenson, Christian Thompson, Zan Wimberley and Jemima Wyman.
Curated by Stella Loftus-Hills, Museum of Australian Photography
Above: Anna Higgins, To be filled with light, 2022, from the series A place beyond heaven
Anna Higgins explores the expanded field of photography, incorporating found archival and contemporary material as well as her own photographs to create ambiguous images that sit poetically between abstraction and figuration. Her images are formed through a combination of analogue and digital processes, and include collage, painting and drawing, scanning and re-photographing. This work forms part of Higgins’s series A place beyond heaven. She made this series after completing a residency in Athens, during which she made regular visits to the National Observatory, becoming interested in early astronomical photography. Suggestive of celestial spheres and otherworldly spaces, these ambiguous, abstract compositions highlight Higgins’s interest in exploring the spiritual in nature while looking at the representation of light, astronomy and the sun in ancient art and cultural history.