MGA 30 YEAR ANNIVERSARY CATALOGUE

'VIEW FINDING Monash Gallery of Art 1990—2020', designed by Pidgeon Ward.

The MGA recently launched a landmark 30 year anniversary publication - VIEW FINDING Monash Gallery of Art 1990—2020. 

This fully illustrated catalogue features image plates by ARC ONE artists Pat Brassington, Lyndell Brown & Charles Green, Rose Farrell & George Parkin, Robert Owen, Jacky Redgate, Julie Rrap, Lydia Wegner and Anne Zahalka. It charts the history of the gallery, its present, and the future of photography in Australia. 

Over the last 30 years MGA has developed one of Australia’s most important cultural assets — the only public collection solely dedicated to Australian photography. MGA’s artistic program has explored the diversity of photographic practice in Australia, and has placed Australian photographers and photography within a global context. 'View Finding' looks at the past, present and future of photography in Australia, presenting moments that have defined MGA, its collection and exhibition history.

A selection of leading lights who specialise in photography in Australia have contributed essays to the publication. You can purchase it here.

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN are included in the exhibition A Very Special Collection, now showing at Deakin's Downtown Gallery.

This exhibition presents highlights from Deakin University Library's Rare Books & Special Collections. On view is Farrell & Parkin's Owl Pair, a pair of papier-mâché busts exploring ancient personality profiling. In the 16th century it was argued that human physiognomic resemblances to animals could provide insights into a person's behaviour. This theory provided the impetus for the last body of work Farrell & Parkin created together before George's death in 2012, in which they created a series of sculptural busts and photographic works.

Each of the human pairings, like Man from Owl Pair' is made from photographs of Parkin's face which were printed onto cotton fabric, sliced into fragments and delicately pinned onto a papier-mâché support.

The exhibition continues until 13 December.

More information >

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ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

Farrell & Parkin, Self Portrait #2 from the series Self Portraits, 2003, Type C Colour photograph, 73 x 76 cm.

ARC ONE Gallery is delighted to present Rose & George, a survey of Rose Farrell & George Parkin’s provocative and visionary collaborative practice.

‘We see ourselves to be one artist with one mind, a total equilibrium.’

–      Rose Farrell & George Parkin, 2010. 

Rose Farrell (1949 – 2015) and George Parkin (1949 – 2012) are recognised nationally and internationally as one of Australia’s most significant and pioneering collaborative artistic partnerships. Their extraordinary vision and united mind pushed the boundaries of photographic portraiture and video art throughout the three decades of their practice.

This exhibition surveys Farrell & Parkin’s oeuvre through selected key works from major series produced between the mid-80s and 2011, including Repentance (1988), Black Room (1992-93), Pulleys, Dislocations and Counterweights (1997-98), A Thousand Golden Remedies (2000), Self Portraits (2003-06), Random Acts (2004), Chinese Self Portraits (2006-09), and their final collaboration, Curious Evolution (2008-11).

Farrell & Parkin, The Annunciation from the series Repentance, 1988, Type C Photograph, 166 x 128 cm.

Linking performance, photography, illustration and sculpture, Farrell & Parkin’s elaborately constructed photographic tableaux contemplate the history of the body and mind. Drawing on a myriad of cultural and historical references – from Renaissance and Baroque religious iconography, cinema traditions, myth, and the healing focus of archaic Eastern and Western medical practices and psychiatry – these works explore the mysteries and uncertainties of the human psyche and the fragility of our existence; articulating what Farrell & Parkin have described as, ‘the perilous journey that humans take throughout life’.

Rose Farrell (1949 – 2015) & George Parkin (1949 – 2012) worked collaboratively from 1984 – 2012, creating enigmatic performative photography and video art. Their importance to Australian art history became apparent early in their career with national representation, acquisitions, and exhibitions by major public art institutions in Australia and abroad, including Black Room at the National Gallery of Victoria, 1995, the Scottish International Festival of Photography, 1995, Curious Evolution at Deakin University Gallery, 2015, and Topography of a Collaborative Mind, a major retrospective at Glen Eira City Council Gallery in 2010. Their work was curated into international exhibitions in Canada, France, Russia, Germany, the United States, and Asia, including Photographica Australis, which opened at the National Gallery of Thailand, Bangkok in 2003 and toured through Asia, 2003-04, and Science Fiction at the Singapore Art Museum, 2003. Major group exhibitions include Infinite Conversations: Asian-Australian Exchange, National Gallery of Australia, 2018; Constructed Worlds, National Gallery of Australia, 2011; The Naked Face: Self Portrait, The Ian Potter Centre, NGV Australia, 2010-2011; Role Play: Portrait Photography, NGV International, 2007-08; Heavenly Creatures, Heide Museum of Modern Art, 2004-05; Second Sight: Australian Photography in the NGV, NGV Australia, 2003 and Wall to Wall, National Gallery of Australia, 1998. They held over 50 solo exhibitions and numerous group during their lifetime together.

Farrell & Parkin were the recipients of numerous awards and prizes including the 2005 Josephine Ulrick & Win Schubert Photography Award, Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and in 1992 and 1994 they were the recipients of the Gold Medallion at the International Photographic Salon of Japan in Tokyo. In 2006 they participated in the Red Gate Gallery International Residency Program in Beijing. They received a number of grants including an Arts Victoria, International Program – Export & Touring Grant in 2008 and an Australia China Council Grant in 2007.

Their work is held in major public collections nationally and internationally including Belgium, Canada, Portugal, Scotland, and the United States. Australian collections include the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; and Artbank.

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN'S 'Annunciation' from the series 'Repentance' is currently on view at National Gallery of Australia.

The artists said of the series: "We are questioning the archetypes/icons history puts before us; taking up the mythology of history, created through representations, which tend to naturalize myth as realism.

An unheralded nexus occurs within the space between past and present, as we examine the inexplicable tensions of Ideals over Time. Our art-historical tableaux attempt to encapsulate the traditional image; re-presenting to the twentieth century, dislocated enigmas. The cipher is presented as fact."

More Information >

Rose Farrell & George Parkin, The Annunciation from the series Repentance, 1988, chromogenic photograph, 164 x 127 cm.

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN, LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN, GUO JIAN, GUAN WEI, JOHN YOUNG

'Infinite Conversations: Asian-Australian artistic exchange', at the National Gallery of Australia, features iconic works by LYNDELL BROWN & CHARLES GREEN, ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN (pictured), GUO JIAN, GUAN WEI, and JOHN YOUNG.

This exhibition considers the creative practice of artists from mainland China and Hong Kong, a number of whom settled in Australia following the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Using diverse modes of production, these artists confront and recount the challenges of making a new home with shifting degrees of grief, poetry and optimism. A second gallery examines the relationships between Asian and Australian artists, revealing a rich, sometimes disquieting dialogue as concepts of race and culture are provoked and explored.

The exhibition continues until 9 September.

More information >

JULIE RRAP, ANNE ZAHALKA and ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

Image: Julie Rrap, Window Dresser No.1 (Marilyn), 2000, digital print, 195 x 122cm.

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN, JULIE RRAP and ANNE ZAHALKA have been selected to exhibit in the group exhibition 'Self/Selfie' at the Ballarat International Foto Biennale. 

Curated by the Biennale Director, Fiona Sweet, the exhibition explores the whimsical nature of selfies, as well as their contribution to the growing culture of narcissism and promotion of conformist behaviour — and the development of the “anti-selfie” on social networks like Snapchat.

Find out more here. 

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ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

Rose Farrell & George Parkin, Detail of Sparrow Man, 2008, synthetic polymer paint on papier-mâché, digital print on cotton fabric, steel pins, foam core backing, 51.5 x 36 x 10 cm.

Robert Nelson writes on ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN's wonderful exhibition, A Curious Evolution, in The Age - the exhibition is on view at Deakin University Art Gallery until 28 August 2015.

To read the review, click here.

ROSE FARRELL GEORGE PARKIN

Rose Farrell and George Parkin, Detail of Sparrow Man, 2008-2011, digital print on archival rag paper, 80 x 204 cm.

Deakin University Art Gallery will present a major exhibition of the work of ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN, titled A Curious Evolution, opening 22 July. 

In A Curious Evolution artists Rose Farrell and George Parkin consider the fanciful imaginings of early personality profiling. In the sixteenth century a desire to fix difference was expressed in studies of the physiognomic similarities observed between animals and humans. This led to comparisons that made a case for the animal logic in human nature. In their last body of work together, Farrell and Parkin push the boundaries of photographic portraiture to investigate this history and the absurdist claims that stood for knowledge. Their evocative images and sculptures reflect upon the intangible elements of character and the camera’s role in codifying difference.

Curated by Wendy Garden.

The exhibition runs from 22 July to 28 August 2015.

ROSE FARRELL GEORGE PARKIN

Rose Farrell and George Parkin, Unified Field, 2011- 2014, digital print on archival cotton rag, 57 x 121cm.

The Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery is currently exhibiting National Works on Paper 2014. The exhibition opened on the 23rd of May and is on until the 20th of July, featuring a work by ROSE FARRELL AND GEORGE PARKIN titled Unified Field.

The following is an artist statement by Rose Farrell on the exhibited collaborative work: 

“Throughout our collaboration, performance was at the core. In 2003 we drew the camera closer and photographed our own faces which began an ongoing interest in the self portrait. This image of George’s and my face was taken in 2011 and was pixilated, distorted and constructed by George at that time. It shows our embrace of the changing digital technology which had, since 2003, allowed for the more extreme "closeup" in order to experiment with the face "as the landscape or tableau."

I, Rose, in 2014, with George’s passing in 2012, have incorporated a collaged digital landscape to reference our love of historical landscapes and nature which previously we used to paint as background sets in our large constructed photographic tableaux. Here the landscape of our faces are joined and unified across the imaginary field which divides us now.”

For more information, click here

A WORLD APART

Peter Daverington, Uncle Bob, 2012, oil on canvas, 91x61cm.

A WORLD APART, ARC ONE Gallery (29 Jan - 1 March 2014)

Curated by Annabel Holt and Anabelle Lacroix

Reviewed in The Age, Arts and Entertainment, 'In the Galleries', 15 Feb 2014.

'A WORLD APART: The pliability of history, the body and the environment are central to ARC ONE'S first group show of the year.  Featuring works held in major collections or featured in major institutional shows - courtesy of gallery artists Julie Rrap, Pat Brassington, Anne Zahalka, Peter Callas, Peter Daverington, Rose Farrell and George Parkin - A WORLD APART offsets the performative with the visceral, the landscape with the surreal.  Daverington's Uncle Bob is a single work in three parts and three mediums. We're presented with a surrealist phizog painted in the artist's devastatingly meticulous manner, neighboured by an animated video work featuring the same character and a photographic print made from a video still.  Callas' chromogenic print, Japanese Uncle Sam, deals in a kind of cultural and historical mutation that invokes the cultural schema under-pinning an occupied post-war Japan.'

- Dan Rule

To read the article click here.

A WORLD APART

Peter Callas, Japanese Uncle Sam, (Neo Geo Squareize Series), 100 x 100cm, chromogenic print edition of 10, 2003.

A WORLD APART, ARC ONE Gallery, 29 JANUARY - 1 MARCH 2014

Curated by Annabel Holt and Anabelle Lacroix

Julie Rrap, Anne Zahalka, Peter Daverington, Rose Farrell/George Parkin, Peter Callas & Pat Brassington.

A WORLD APART is a group exhibition selected from the diverse ranks of ARC ONE’s artists, presenting key works across various media.

A WORLD APART plays at dissecting and re-representing reality, conceptually and aesthetically. Through this re-construction, attention is called to that which displaces our ingrained perceptions; the boundaries shift, a duality emerges, exploring the con­stant challenge between seeing and understanding.

Comprised of highly significant pieces, the works in A WORLD APART are all either included in large collections or featured in institutional exhibitions in Australia or internationally. For example, Farrell and Parkin’s Elastic Electromagnetic Waves (2010) is in the collection of The National Gallery of Aus­tralia (NGA), Canberra and their Unforseen Circumstances, Act Two (2004/05) is in the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Sydney, together with Julie Rrap’s Camouflage #4 (Eiko) (2000). One of Peter Callas’ video works from the Anti-Terrain series has been shown at the Museum of Art (MOMA), New York and Anne Zahalka’s The Cleaner (1986) is in the collection of the Monash Gallery of Art (MGA). Pat Brassington’s work The Wedding Guest is currently on show at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), in the collections of Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA), Art Gal­lery of South Australia and the Horsham Regional Art Gallery.

ROBERT OWEN / IMANTS TILLERS / ANNE ZAHALKA / JULIE RRAP / ROSE FARRELL and GEORGE PARKIN

JULIE RRAP, Persona and Shadow Christ.

ARC ONE are pleased to announce that ROBERT OWEN, IMANTS TILLERS, ANNE ZAHALKA, JULIE RRAP, ROSE FARRELL and GEORGE PARKIN are all included in the exhibition Mixtape 1980's at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Mix Tape 1980s 'explores a decade of dynamic change in contemporary art and culture, from appropriation and sampling in painting and music to the DIY aesthetics of post-punk music, art and fashion; and from postmodern critiques of history, authorship and originality to postcolonial revisions of Australian history and identity.'

The exhibition is open 11 April- 1 September 2013. for more information, click here.

JULIE RRAP, ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN

JULIE RRAP and ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN's work will be included in a new exhibition at Glen Eira City Council Gallery titled Encounters.  

Opening Wednesday 30 May, 6.30pm.

Floor talk by Curator Diane Soumilas, Wednesday 20 June at 3pm

31 May - 24 June

ROSE FARRELL GEORGE PARKIN / ANNE ZAHALKA

ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN'S and ANNE ZAHALKA's works have been included at the Maroondah Art Gallery in an exhibition titled, Freeze! The directorial turn in contemporary photography.  Curated by Wendy Garden, this exhibition is a diverse selection of works by artists who pursue the narrative possibilities of the photograph as an inherently performative space.  These constructed scene offer socio-political commentary along with poignant insight into the human condition.

22 March - 5 May, 2012

ROSE FARRELL GEORGE PARKIN

ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN will be exhibiting in a group exhibition at the Australian Centre for Photography, opening Friday 26th November and continuing until Thursday 23 December. Sumptuary presents 'the work of five leading Australian photomedia artists who will explore the fabrics, costumes, jewellery and tableware of conspicuous consumption and absolute power'. 

For more information click here.

ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN and JACKY REDGATE

ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN and JACKY REDGATE'S work will be displayed at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra in an exhibition titled Constructed Worlds: photography in the 1980s.

Photography in the 1980s can perhaps be best characterised by work made in the studio. Although photographers continued to document the world by going out in to it, others manipulated and altered the image, often appropriating and reinterpreting imagery from the past. Art school-trained, many were informed by various traditions such as Conceptual Art, with French theory all the vogue. It was common that artists, coming from other media, took up the camera at this time as another way of expressing their ideas. Their work asked the viewer to think about the nature of photography itself: less a window onto the world it became instead a means to create new worlds from the artists’ own imaginings.

A half day forum titled Tableaux Vivant: 1980s Photography is being held on 21 May, at the National Gallery, discussing the themes of the decade.  The exhibition opened on 8 April and will continue until 29 August.

For more information please click here.

ANNE SCOTT WILSON and ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN

ANNE SCOTT WILSON and the collaborative duo ROSE FARRELL/GEORGE PARKIN will be involved in the forthcoming exhibition BLACK BOX <> WHITE CUBE: ASPECTS OF PERFORMANCE IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN ART at the Arts Centre, Melbourne from 4 June to 18 September 2011.

JULIE RRAP / ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

JULIE RRAP, ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN are in a group exhibition at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia (Federation Square) titled The Naked Face: Self Portraits. 

'This unique exhibition reveals how self-portraits have shaped our perceptions of art and the artist's life.' NGV

The exhibition opens December 3 and continues until 27 February, 2011. 

For more information please click here.

ROSE FARRELL GEORGE PARKIN

A survey exhibition of FARRELL & PARKIN, Topography of a Collaborative Mind, will be held at the Glen Eira City Council Gallery. The exhibition is curated by Diane Soumilas and opens on 22nd September at 6.30pm. Runs until 17th October, 2010. Floor talk by Curator Diane Soumilas, Sunday 26 September, 2.30pm. Floor talk by artist Rose Farrell, Saturday 2 October, 2.30pm. FREE ADMISSION.

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN

ROSE FARRELL & GEORGE PARKIN feature in Brave New World, the Queensland Centre for Photography's contribution to the Queensland Festival of Photography 3 (QFP3). The exhibition focuses upon the ways artists are examining photography not only as medium for critical discourse but as a medium for proposals. April 3 - 2 May 2010.