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John Buckley Gallery is pleased to announce the first exhibition at the Albert Street space by Simon Strong. Since his debut in 2000, Strong has had an extensive exhibition history both in Victoria and interstate. He has participated in numerous group shows, most recently, "Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography From the Loti Smorgon Fund" at the National Gallery of Victoria (2006-07), and the up-coming “Snap Freeze: Still Life Now" at Tarrawarra Museum of Art (20 May- 11 November, 2007). In his new body of work, Strong develops his on-going fascination with the theatrical space of digital photography and particularly with the variety of ways in which darkness can be contrived and represented by using artificial light, often informed by the tricks and techniques of contemporary cinematography. For Strong, these light sources are the means by which he proposes a symbolic dichotomy between nature and artifice. Glowing cabbages, floating light balls on a lake, bulbs hanging from a cod’s mouth, are all part of Strong’s surreal iconography, which alludes to his interest, if not anxiety, in the fluidity of man-made cultural boundaries – always, it seems to him, under the threat of siege by the encroaching nightmare of nature and the fragility of our constructed world. |
Drawing inspiration from dreams, childhood fears and long solitary walks at night, Strong’s staged photographic re-enactments of his dreamlike experiences create psychological tensions in playful space, and remind us of the Aristotelian belief in the potentially cathartic experience of art as theatre. Simon Strong’s work has already found its way into important public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery Victoria and the Westin Hotel in Melbourne, and Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland. |
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