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Details
- Date
- 1980
- Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- type C photograph
- Dimensions
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28.0 x 35.5 cm sheet
:
1 - left image, 25.2 x 20.4 cm, image
2 - right image, 14.2 x 11.5 cm, image
- Signature & date
Signed and dated l.r. verso, ink "Fiona Hall 1980".
- Credit
- Purchased 1984
- Location
- Not on display
- Accession number
- 169.1984
- Copyright
- © Fiona Hall
- Artist information
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Fiona Hall
Works in the collection
- Share
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About
In 1980 Fiona Hall’s work underwent a shift, although for her it was: ‘a gradual revelation … it was more about returning to a space in the history of art, as constructed by other artists. It’s difficult to go back and talk about the shift as being a revelation because it happened over a period of time … if one could talk about an extended revelation, yes it has been revelatory, an exploration of what one could say in the studio and taking it further and further.1
Hall produced a series of works in colour where she examined, in the form of diptychs, iconic images from the history of art, including those by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Piet Mondrian and Jan van Eyck. Hall’s reconstructions are akin to examinations within examinations as reproductions of the original masterpiece sit within her mediations on it. Unlike a series of Chinese boxes or Russian dolls the final work is a puzzle where all the extrapolations lead to more interpretative possibilities. As Kate Davidson has written: ‘These associations are not a matter of chance: like theatre props, the unorthodox materials were consciously selected and arranged. Collectively they function as diagrammatic representations of pictorial elements and undermine, at the same time revitalise, conventional perceptions of the famous works they mimic.2
1. Fiona Hall interviewed by J Moss & T Morrell 1988/89, ‘Photofile’, no 25, summer p 26
2. Davidson K 1992, ‘Garden of earthly delights: the work of Fiona Hall’, Australian National Gallery, Canberra p 8© Art Gallery of New South Wales Photography Collection Handbook, 2007
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Exhibition history
Shown in 8 exhibitions
Australian Perspecta 1981, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29 May 1981–21 Jun 1981
Project 38- Re-constructed Vision, Contemporary work with photography (1981), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 Jul 1981–23 Aug 1981
Ten years on, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Jan 1986–Jan 1986
Five years on: a selection of acquisitions 1981-1986, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 26 Sep 1986–23 Nov 1986
Contemporary Colour Photographs from the Collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 06 Jul 1991–22 Sep 1991
Critic's Choice, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 22 Apr 1994–10 Jul 1994
What is this thing called photography?, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 05 Jun 1999–29 Jul 1999
Marriage: Love and Law, Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest, Emu Plains, 30 Mar 2019–16 Jun 2019
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Bibliography
Referenced in 7 publications
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George Alexander, Photography: Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection, 'Tableaux - memento mori - screen culture', pg.313-335, Sydney, 2007, 315 (colour illus.), 320 (colour illus.).
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Judy Annear, What is this thing called photography?, Sydney, 1999. no catalogue numbers
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Art Gallery of New South Wales, Five years on: a selection of acquisitions 1981-1986, Sydney, 1986. cat.no. 158
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Julie Ewington, Fiona Hall, 'Seeing meaning, making meaning', pg.26-51, Annandale, 2005, 42, 51 (colour illus.).
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Robert McFarlane, Critic's Choice, Sydney, 1994. no catalogue numbers
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Bernice Murphy, Australian Perspecta 1981, Sydney, 1981, 160. cat. no. 147
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Gael Newton, Re-constructed Vision: Contemporary work with photography, Sydney, 1981. cat.no. 24
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