Through a diverse range of immersive and thought-provoking works, the exhibition explores views of our culture, our identity and our nationhood. Reflecting Australia’s multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-faith nature, this audacious exhibition enables a creative and often very personal exploration of the question ‘is there something new under the sun?’

The 15 artists not only interrogate the social and political implications embedded within this image but also challenge the status of this photograph in our visual culture. Pushing the boundaries of the photographic medium, their works will expose the aesthetical complexities at play in discussions around collective identity.

Examining the legacy of the past and questioning the relevance that this image might retain in the future, the project draws on a range of diverse practitioners and creative forms to consider questions of representation and cultural pluralism while also reflecting on the depiction of the idealised body, discussing gender issues, cultural and political ideas relating to immigration and colonisation, and our relationship with the land.

The exhibition features new works by Peta Clancy, Christopher Day, Destiny Deacon, Michaela Gleave, Nasim Nasr, Sara Oscar, Julie Rrap, Khaled Sabsabi, Yhonnie Scarce, Christian Thompson, Angela Tiatia, Kawita Vatanajyankur, Daniel von Sturmer, Justene Williams and William Yang. Curated by Claire Monneraye.

Under the sun: Reimagining Max Dupain’s Sunbaker
6 May – 6 August 2017
Monash Gallery of Art, Wheelers Hill
www.acp.org.au

Photography has been crucial in the development of our understanding of Australia as a place and Australians as a people. Tracing the evolution of the medium and its many uses from the 1840s until today, The photograph and Australia investigates the role that photography has played in shaping our view of the world, ourselves and each other.

Sourced from more than 35 private and public collections across Australia, New Zealand and England, the exhibition features works by renowned artists, as well as images by unknown photographers and everyday material such as family albums and postcards. Weaving together the multiple threads of Australia’s photographic history, it proposes a new way of thinking about the connections between photography, place and identity.

Artists include Morton Allport, Richard Daintree, Paul Foelsche, Samuel Sweet, JJ Dwyer, Charles Bayliss, Frank Hurley, Harold Cazneaux, Olive Cotton, Max Dupain, Sue Ford, Carol Jerrems, Tracey Moffatt, Simryn Gill, Robyn Stacey, Ricky Maynard and Anne Ferran, among many others.

As part of The photograph and Australia, Patrick Pound’s installation The readers 2011-15 is on display in the Gallery’s research library.

The photograph and Australia
21 March – 8 June 2015
Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au