performance art and photography
Still photographs of performance art are intriguing, as they function as historical mementos of durational experiences and also beguile viewers as artworks in their own right. ‘Afterglow’ presents photographs that document the wide spectrum of Australian performance art over the past forty years.
Post-event photographic representation is the primary experience of performance for many viewers, after all, only so many people can be witnesses to a live performance. This exhibition provides contemporary viewers, who are removed from the emotional immediacy of these past events, with space for detached contemplation, an encounter that can be just as privileged as experiencing the ephemerality of the original event. ‘Afterglow’ represents an important and innovative re-visioning of the history of Australian performance art and photography, drawing on the extensive collection of photographs in the Monash Gallery of Art’s collection.
It is significant that Jill Orr’s narrative sequence Lunch with the birds (1979) leads the viewer into the exhibition space. The prominence of Orr’s work in ‘Afterglow’ is pertinent; she is an important Australian performance artist, whose contribution to the field is too often underplayed. These images set the tone for the exhibition, as Orr’s investigation of the role of humans in society, both as individuals and in relation to the environment, is also a key recurring theme in much performance art. Lunch is a narrative sequence shot by Elizabeth Campbell that captures Orr, clad in her mother’s wedding dress and surrounded by an offering of fresh fish, pure grain and whole bread, on Melbourne’s St Kilda beach. Orr waits on the shoreline to be joined by scavenging seagulls, presenting a more suitable ornithological feast than the usual greasy chips, fish batter and junk thrown to