Vanila Netto

(Brazil, Australia 14 Mar 1969– )

Title

Beyond fission lies fusion (untamed)

Year

2003-2004

Media category

Photograph

Materials used

digital print

Edition

1/5

Dimensions

39.5 x 39.5cm image/sheet

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.c. verso, black marker, "... 2003-4/ ... V. Netto".

Credit

Purchased with funds provided by the Photography Collection Benefactors' Program 2004

Accession number

128.2004

Location

Not on display

Further information

Vanila Netto is one of a younger generation of photographers working within the directorial genre of contemporary photography. Born in Salvador, Brazil, Netto studied architecture before moving to Australia in 1987. She has recently completed a PhD at the University of New South Wales in the School of Media Arts/Photomedia.

Netto’s use of discarded objects, such as coloured plastic, signals an evolutionary process: ‘stuff’ takes on new meaning when it is re-contextualised or transformed and then photographed. A past, used or recognisable element, such as a Statue of Liberty figurine or plastic beer casing, is re-configured into a retro contemporary setting or situation creating a new designed reality. As Netto has written, she has a 'passion for the obsolete, for the simple and basic, for investing things with unusual functionality and nobility'.1

There is mischievousness in Netto's works, evident in the odd juxtapositions of people, things, materials and colours that hark back to childhood memories and dreaming. In their accumulation of past with present these works gesture to a new technological future. They teem with dreams of fantasy and possibilities both real and imaginary. As Tanya Peterson has written: ‘Analogous to photographic stills taken on the set of a sci-fi movie such as Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001: a space odyssey’ 1968, Netto’s images linger like so many conspiracy theories.’2

1. Netto V 2001, ‘Stuffed with your choice of substance and covered with elasticised fabric’, Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons) paper, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales p 11
2. Peterson T 2004, ‘Cushion-do not crush insulation’, Sherman Galleries, Sydney

Bibliography (2)

7079 (Editor), Photography: Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, 2007, 319, 323 (colour illus.).

Sherman Galleries (Australia, estab. 1986, closed 2007), Vanila Netto: Cushion - Do not crush insulation, Sydney, 2004.

Exhibition history (1)

Vanila Netto: Cushion - Do not crush insulation, Sherman Galleries, 22 Jan 2004–07 Feb 2004.