Mark Van Veen and David Hempenstall
Gallery 1
Friday 21 October - Sunday 6 November 2022
The Corner of My Eye explores the work of two Canberra photographers who use photographs to record their view of the world and reflect on easily overlooked details that when studied in isolation can reveal hidden meaning in our everyday existence. Both artists use the photographic image as a both a point of departure from reality and a moment of clarity.
David Hempenstall
Davis Hempenstallโs intimate photographs of family life reveal a view of reality in which individuals inhabit a place of his own making and illustrate an affection for his subjects and sense of awe at the complexities of human relationships.
โI only wanted Uncle Vern standing in front of his new car (a Hudson) on a clear day. I got him and the car. I also got a bit of Aunt Maryโs laundry and Beau Jack, the dog, peeing on the fence, a row of potted tuberous begonias on the porch and seventy-eight trees and a million pebbles in the driveway anymore. Itโs a generous medium photographyโ Lee Friedlander - American photographer, born 1934.
Image: Mark Van Veen, Grey Stone Branches, 2020. Digital colour photograph, 46 x 70 cm.
Mark Van Veen
The series โCease to Existโ reveals a fascination with the reflections in cemetery headstones and graves, how they hold images of the surrounding branches, leaves, skies, that sets oneโs eyes focusing beyond the polished stone surface. In that moment it's as if we can see into a world beyond the engraved memorial as the hard materiality seemingly dissolves and a portal opens.
โNo matter what role we are in - photographer, beholder, critic - inducing silence for the seeing in ourselves, we are given to see from a sacred place. From that place the sacredness of everything can be seen.โ Minor White - American photographer 1908-1976.