Fragments of a World: Artists Working in Film and Photography 1973–1987
Janet Bayly
Minerva Betts
Rhondda Bosworth
Jane Campion
Alexis Hunter
Joanna Margaret Paul
Popular Productions
curated by Sandy Callister
02 October – 18 December 2015
Fragments of a World brought together a selection of films and photographs by Janet Bayly, Minerva Betts, Rhondda Bosworth, Jane Campion, Alexis Hunter, Joanna Margaret Paul and Popular Productions produced between 1973 and 1987. The exhibition borrowed its title from a book published in 1976 surveying the emerging contemporary art medium of photography, which took a gendered approach to its subject and featured the work of 31 women artists. The aim of the exhibition was to examine a particular form of imagemaking that opens up thinking about the intersection of feminism, new technologies, and a disruptive epoch. The selected artists all demonstrate their embrace of and struggle with established conventions and hierarchies in the art, film and photographic worlds. Employing strategies such as staging, repetition, reconstruction, assemblage and blurring, they test new technologies, slipping between categories to reframe everyday experiences with disruptive purpose, yet avoiding overt politics. Experimenting with the new media of their time, these artists foreshadow how technologies now mediate our desires and inner thoughts; they are eloquent harbingers of our Instagram era.
Fragments of a World toured to Michael Lett in Auckland (20 January - 20 February 2016).
Sandy Callister is an independent curator and writer based in Auckland. She was 2010 Research Scholar at the Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington and has been an Adam Art Gallery Advisory Board Member and Victoria University of Wellington Art Collection Trustee since 2010.
This exhibition was staged concurrently with Traces of the Wake: The Etching Revival in Britain and Beyond and Bruce Barber: Performance Scores.
Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Minerva Betts, Table circa 1980, silver bromide print, framed, 350 x 365mm. Courtesy of the Estate of L. Budd and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Minerva Betts, Untitled 1980–2015, silver bromide contact prints with oil pastel, table, Perspex. Courtesy of the Estate of L. Budd and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Left: Alexis Hunter, Approach to Fear V11: Pain-Solace (Hoxton, London) 1975 16 colour photographs, framed. Right: Alexis Hunter, Approach to Fear VI: Violence, Destruction of Evidence (Bermondsey, London) 1976, 8 framed colour photographs, two parts. All images courtesy of the artist’s estate. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Popular Productions the story of, 1973, digital transfer of 8mm film, black and white, silent, 6mins 23secs, courtesy of Popular Productions and Michael Lett, Auckland. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh)
Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Janet Bayly, Lace Dress 2(detail), 1979/2002, five colour Lambda prints from SX-70 Polaroids. Courtesy of the artist
Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Janet Bayly, Self Portrait /Blue Face (detail), 1979/2002, four colour Lambda prints from SX-70 Polaroids. Courtesy of the artist
Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Joanna Margaret Paul, Untitled, 1976/2013, Archival pigment print (edition of 3), Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Joanna Margaret Paul, Untitled (Barry’s Bay), 1976/2013, Archival pigment print (edition of 3), Courtesy of the artist’s estate and Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Jane Campion, A Girl’s Own Story 1984, digital transfer of 16mm film, black and white, sound, 27 minutes, courtesy of the artist and Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), Sydney. Installation view, Fragments of a World, curated by Sandy Callister, Adam Art Gallery Te Pātaka Toi, Victoria University of Wellington, 2015. Photo: Shaun Waugh
Poster for Fragments of a World