26 August – 22 October 2023
The Art Gallery of Ballarat is proud to present two exhibitions as part of the core program of the highly anticipated Ballarat International Foto Biennale (BIFB) 2023. Featuring an extensive collection of images that have been captured by a diverse range of brilliant photographers, BIFB gives visitors a chance to immerse themselves in emotive portrayals of life through the lens of Goldfields photographers, Ian Kemp, Karenne Ann and Heather Horrocks.
These exhibitions will be shown alongside BIFB feature exhibitions, Platon, Yvonne Todd and Instant Warhol, making the Art Gallery of Ballarat a key venue for BIFB 2023.
Effacement
Karenne Ann and Heather Horrocks, who live and work on Wadawurrung Country (Ballarat), formed a post-pandemic collaboration called ISOyoh. This exhibition is about identity. Masks can change everything. Photographic images by Karenne Anne loom from the walls and distort the identity of the maker, Heather Horrocks, who wears them. Redundant VHS tape that once held stories is manipulated with a crochet hook to tell new ones – about the war on a virus, the war on climate change and the war on women. In the exhibition, the tapes are incorporated into a recreated sitting room of the Norman Lindsay family within the Gallery, disrupting its peaceful atmosphere.
Media call – Friday 11 August, 12 pm
Neverlasting
Ballarat-based photographer Ian Kemp, presents Neverlasting, an exhibition that captures the natural world metaphorically describing the transcience of human life, its permanence and its impermanence. The works depict the constantly changing world where beauty is ephemeral, temporary and uses the tonal and textural properties of etching and other traditional printing processes to imbue these works with otherworldliness. Highlighting the beauty of line, form, and composition within the images to convey the impending change that will come with the seasons, a metaphor for the inner transitions along the progress of human life.
Ian Kemp is a fine art photographer from Soldiers Hill, Ballarat. He was a finalist in Capture magazine’s annual competition Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers in 2018. Since then he has received a number of national awards including being a finalist in the Ballarat International Foto Biennale Open Program Awards in 2019.
Gallery Director Louise Tegart said that the Art Gallery of Ballarat was proud to be a major venue partner of BIFB in 2023.
“The Ballarat International Foto Biennale is a great celebration of photography, bringing an array of exciting exhibitions from the local to the global to Ballarat audiences and visitors.
“We are looking forward to complementing the BIFB’s programming of some major international artists by presenting these core program exhibitions that showcase local talent and which provide insights into aspects of contemporary Australian culture.”
BALLARAT INTERNATIONAL FOTO BIENNALE
Now in its 19th year, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale attracts significant photographers as one of Australia’s pre-eminent photographic festivals, immersing the historic town of Ballarat in photographic art. Since its inception in 2005, BIFB takes place every two years and features the latest work from local and international artists.
ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT
Founded in 1884, the Art Gallery of Ballarat has the oldest, largest, and most significant art collection in regional Australia. The gallery brings in over 200,000 visitors annually and is a major part of Ballarat’s tourism economy as well as having a focus on visual arts in the Ballarat region. A recognised leader in regional arts, the gallery is known for mounting high-profile, high-quality exhibitions that contribute to national conversations and debates interlacing culture and identity.
ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT
40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat
Bookings and more information: artgalleryofballarat.com.au/
Image credits
Top left: She the Magaonghusa, 2022. Archival pigment inkjet on paper. ISOyoh collaboration (Karenne Ann and Heather Horrocks), © Karenne Ann
Top centre: She the Effaced, 2022. Archival pigment inkjet on paper. ISOyoh collaboration (Karenne Ann and Heather Horrocks), © Karenne Ann
Top right: She the Silenced, 2022. Archival pigment inkjet on paper. ISOyoh collaboration (Karenne Ann and Heather Horrocks), © Karenne Ann
Bottom right: Ian Kemp, Carachi Pampa, 2023. Digital photograph. © Ian Kemp
