Overview
Because three exhibitions are always better than one, the Combined exhibition at the TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre is a showcase of the Auckland Festival of Photography's annual commission, Stephanie O’Connor's Release the Hounds, and Martin Ball's DRAWN.
The annual commission is a public commission of photography by mid-career local artistic talent. Since its inception in 2011, artists Roberta Thornley, James K Lowe, Jennifer Mason and Tanu Gago have been selected as featured photographers. The exhibition at the Pah Homestead will showcase each of the previous recipients’ works, and support the 2015 commissioned work by P J Paterson.
Stephanie O’Connor’s Release the Hounds looks at the controversial subjects of femininity, identity and beauty. Her works take portraits of everyday women and accentuate what society perceives to be flaws using post production techniques, contesting the average airbrushed image we are accustomed to seeing of female representation in the mass media. The images appear animalistic compared to the idealism of their photoshopped counterparts, resulting in an air of defiant feminism.
Martin Ball’s exhibit is an artistic journey through time, starting with his ‘pop’ drawings of the early ’70s, and drawing inspiration from the generations as he sketched his way through to today, with his latest ‘paper’ series. Aptly named, his DRAWN exhibition explores realism through portraiture from minimalistic outlines to detailed sketches, resulting in a timeline of styles and techniques spanning Ball’s entire career.