'Behind this wall' 248 x 120 cm, C-type print, 2008
'Behind this wall' was created for a group show at 'Platform' gallery, a series of display cabinets in a public pedestrian subway.
'Behind this wall' employs the actual site as the subject for enquiry, documenting the space situated directly behind the display area of Platform; a private underground car park. Multiple photos were digitally combined to mimic the standpoint of the spectator at Platform looking into the display cabinet as if through a window into the car park on the other side of the wall. The printed image represents a physical intervention eliminating the material boundary between two isolated spheres, highlighting the spatial potential of photography.
The photograph is guilty of many miss-deeds, lies and fabrications. As our culture increasingly visualizes, pictures pimp every product imaginable from bikinis to beach houses.
But, the medium is innocent, it is our implicit assumption that the photograph is ‘real’ that leads us astray.
The 1:20 project originated as an open investigation of the possibilities of collaboration between an architect and photographer/artist. a collaboration that attempts to re-frame the typical, linear relationship of
architect > photographer : object > documentation.
into a true collaborative process of:
architect <> photographer: artifice <> real(site)
using each of the collaborator’s familiar techniques; digital and physical model making, image production and manipulation, in unfamiliar ways to establish hybrid methodologies.
the transit lounge gallery was taken as the site of experimentation – the ‘transience’ of the project being the temporary occupation of, focus on and transformation of the ‘site’.
the site was photographically recorded at a variety of scales, physically modelled, transformed via installations and alterations to the model. re-photographed and presented within the site (gallery).
The re-presentation of the ‘artificial’ images of the ‘real’ space, within the real space destabilizes the conventional ‘reality’ of the photograph and in particular the architectural photograph.
1 is to 1.
For this project we were joined by new media artists’ Kristina Matovic, Benjamin Ducroz , sound artist Michael Prior and violinist Martha Angharad Agostini.
We explored similar themes to the previous project:
- The perceived reality of the photographic image
- Establishment of artifice<>real feedback loop.
- The loss/gain of information in the trasition from 2D to 3D, and the space for creative miss-intrepetation this opens up.
By photographing the 1:20 model and installing them as 1:1 images in the space – we introduced atrifical spaces into the real space.
These new spaces used the architectural elements of the site to re-inforce the illusion (walls became floors etc) and blured the distinction between the real and artificial.
kris, ben and micheal introduced live video and audio feeds into the image – the viewer became the actor – interacting with recored video – artificial image and live sound.
Tanja Milbourne
1974 born in Karlsruhe, Germany
Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia
Education
2001
Bachelor of Visual Arts
New Media
University of Sydney
Australia
'in my backyard' competition, first prize
Red Earth Gallery, Mooroolbark, Australia
"islands crossing" collaboration with Katie Hepworth and Robert Curgenven
Darwin Visual Arts Association, Darwin, Australia
http://www.soundsunusual.com/
"1:1" and "1:20", two collaborations with Ben Milbourne
transitlounge, Berlin, Germany
http://www.transitlounge.org/
'Yards Project' collaboration with Helen Grogan
for the Innovators program at:
Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts
Melbourne, Australia
http://www.lindenarts.org/
2005
'as much as I can'
ZiM Spacer, Rotterdam
'dark city'
Vitrine, Rotterdam
2004
'Intellect made us blind'
Suzanne Tarasieve Gallery, Paris
'somewhere in the city'
Phototechnica Exhibition Space, Sydney
2001
'd>art 01' final graduate work
Customs House, Sydney
