WORK-TO-RULE VI

Born in London in 1955, Jacky Redgate migrated with her family to Australia at the age of twelve, settling in Adelaide. First studying at the South Australian School of Art, she has since lived and worked in Berlin, and completed a Master in Visual Arts at the Sydney College of the Arts. The artist currently lives in Sydney and lectures at the University of Wollongong.

Since the 1980s Redgate has explored the interplay of systems of perception and representation, particularly in relation to photography and what occurs in the translation of three-dimensional 'things in the world' into two-dimensional images. In turn, Redgate has created sculptural objects which are either impossible to photograph or which are optical or perceptual conundrums.

In these works, he artist builds upon her exploration of the relationship between photography and other media. Redgate adopts the modus operandi of the commercial studio photographer in ‘WORK-TO-RULE’, using a medium format camera, sophisticated studio lighting and backdrops to produce highly finished images that highlight both the consumerist and sculptural nature of her subjects.

In the ‘STRAIGHTCUT’ series the artist photographs 1960s modular plastic food containers arranged with mirrors to produce spatially complex images. The gridded abstract paintings of Piet Mondrian and the technique of photographer Florence Henri (1893-1982) who employed mirrors to fragment her subjects were some of the influences that inspired these photographs.