ANNE ZAHALKA is featured in #NGVPhotosFromHome, a project featuring photographers, whose work is in the NGV Collection, sharing their current lived experience, or a moment in time through images and words.
“These pictures of my family taken during the month of May reveal the small rituals performed within daily life. They lightly draw on the language of documentary photography, genre painting and Reality TV, referencing an earlier body of work, Open House (1995), held in the collection of the NGV and shown in the exhibition Civilization: The Way We Live Now.
The scenes may be staged, but the environments are real – a readymade set against which we perform and present ourselves.
The still lives of objects lovingly arranged around my family have a special value. They are reminders of places travelled, people known and things passed down. From a collection of summer frocks suspended in time to op-shop prints by Albert Namatjira, to plants we have tended and art acquired, these anchor us to our home in uncertain times.
Surrounded by our possessions and the memories they hold, I feel fortunate to have a place filled with treasures that provide such comfort to me and those I share them with.”
— Anne Zahalka
