Justine Khamara, orbital spin trick, UV print on laser-cut plywood, 50cm diameter approx.
JUSTINE KHAMARA
Reconstructure | ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, 27 August - 28 September.
With calm precision, photo-sculptural artist Justine Khamara sliced up the photographic faces of her nearest and dearest. She then reconfigured them – a psychological and physical manipulation – to create the photo-sculptural works of her upcoming exhibition, Reconstructure.
Justine Khamara’s practice continues to focus on the material, plastic qualities of photography and to push the boundaries of photo-sculpture. In Reconstructure, Khamara moves forward within the process of photographic replication and repetition, presenting work with an increased mathematical, rational and abstracted sensibility.
The photographic imagery of 'Reconstructure' retains a fragmented presence, central to Khamara’s practice, whilst escalating in psychological intensity. This calm intensity, combined with Khamara’s particular focus on colour, line, form and structure, imbues Reconstructure with a contained sense of movement – an explosion held in check.
- Annabel Holt, August 2013
Justine Khamara lives and works in Melbourne, Australia. Solo exhibitions include: now I am a radiant people, ARC ONE Gallery (2011); Erysichthon’s Ball, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2010); How Excellently We Did-diddly-do-do Do It, Heide Museum of Modern Art (2007). Group exhibitions include: Northern Lights, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre (2013); Contemporary Australia: Women, Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2012); Double Vision, McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park, Langwarrin (2011); Present Tense: An imagined grammar of portraiture in the digital age, National Portrait Gallery, Canberra (2010); The Edge of the Universe, Shepparton Art Gallery, Victoria; New 09, ACCA Melbourne (2009); Primavera 07, MCA Sydney (2007). In 2003 Khamara graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts.