In all of Redgate’s iterations of her mirror works dating back to STRAIGHTCUT (2001–) she uses the 4 x 5-inch camera in a fixed position and she regularly describes herself as an ‘absent/presence’ in the work. Curator, Robert Leonard has recently observed that her mirror works – “... deranges the reciprocity between seer (photographer/viewer) and seen. Despite all those mirrors, neither photographer nor camera are visible. Standing in Redgate’s place, we might feel that the image isn’t returning our gaze, but that it looks past us, looks awry. She/we aren’t the projected centre of the world’. [1]
Jacky Redgate is regarded as one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, with a practice extending four decades. Redgate’s career began in the context of late 1970s feminism, minimalism and conceptual art. She is known for her photographic and sculptural work using systems and logic. Working across photographic and object-based practices, Redgate has exhibited extensively within Australia and internationally since the end of the 1970s. Recent selected solo exhibitions include: WORK-TO-RULE (NEGATIVE), Kronenberg Wright Gallery, Sydney, 2018, Jacky Redgate Light Throw (Mirrors) #1-10, 2018, Latrobe Regional Gallery; Jacky Redgate: Mirrors, University Art Gallery, the University of Sydney (2015); Jacky Redgate: the Logic of Vision, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2012); Visions From Her Bed, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane (2008); Jacky Redgate: Life of the System 1980–2005, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney (2005–06); and Jacky Redgate: Survey 1980–2003, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia, Adelaide (2004). She is a recipient of the 1st prize, Bowness Photography Prize, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne (2011). Her work is included in major national collections and survey exhibitions including two Australian Perspecta exhibitions, three Biennales of Sydney, the Clemenger Art Award at the National Gallery of Victoria (2006), and the Heide Museum of Modern Art’s Cubism & Australian Art (2009).
[1] Robert Leonard in Ann Stephen and Robert Leonard, Jacky Redgate: Mirrors, University of Sydney, Power Publications, p.83. This 2016 publication is an important new monograph which focuses on Redgate’s eminent work with mirrors in recent decades co-published by Power Publications with the University Art Gallery, The University of Sydney, in partnership with the University of Wollongong.
