Divergence: Photos from Elsewhere at the Midland Railway Workshops
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Wed 14 Mar 2012 - Sun 15 Apr 2012
Divergence: Photographs from Elsewhere presented by FORM is billed on the FotoFreo Festival website as a monumental showcase of contemporary photography that demonstrates the ability of this medium "to communicate across cultures, connect diverse people, create debate and stir emotion". The exhibition is definitely massive, just like the Atelier and Midland Railway Workshops venue itself which is the largest heritage industrial building in the southern hemisphere. With sixty artists from fifteen countries showing works as diverse as one could expect in a venue caught in a time capsule it certainly is an experience.
Luminary Indian photographer Sohab Hura whose work is showcased at this exhibition says that it is best to "experience a photograph" that "tears your heart out from the inside" and that "it is very important that photography doesn't allow you to remain the same after having seen it". Hura's work and the Divergence exhibition itself doesn't disappoint.
FORM welcomes visitors to Divergence to come and explore Atelier, the vibrant creative hub which started in the Pattern Shop of the Workshops. Atelier is aptly named meaning both workshop and artist's studio in French, located in the once thriving Midland Railway Workshops which closed under a cloud of controversy in 1993. It is now being reborn as a focus of art, craft and photography and is a vital asset for Western Australians.
There are "ghosts" lurking in the huge half-empty buildings, in the incredible anachronistic machinery and in the photographs "from elsewhere", giving a feeling of layer upon layer of life and art.
The universal juxtapositions in the photographs are striking against their showcase; life and death, power and decline, beauty and ugliness, youth and age, rights and injustice.
In Block 1, the smaller of the buildings, the photographs of people at work and at play reinforce these themes exhibited as they are opposite machinery, a large flat stone wheel and the immaculate staircase which still seems to beckon despite the notice.
Memorable are the three factory women on their work break, arm in arm and defiantly friendly but one can imagine their spirited conversations. In another photo three European confectioners are happily and busily at work. Two are rolling out a huge piece of warm red and white sugar candy so it doesn't cool and harden before the confectioner on the end shapes and cuts it neatly into the red and white candy stick so common in a distant childhood. The oily cindery smell of the railway machinery is a constant reminder of the past too.
Quietly sad is the photo by David McMillan of the deserted concrete room somewhere else from the Nuclear age series with the beautiful autumn leaves weaving around the emptiness.
A favourite of mine is a photograph of several young Sikh boys in the UK, dressed immaculately in blue and yellow uniforms, probably a music group as one is carrying a type of flute. Their faces are as relaxed, happy and hopeful as the background of their location is drab, decaying and desolate.
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Diversity and controversy continue in Block 2 with "The Pilbara Project" part of the "Photographers' Cut" in a series showing the modern wealth generator of the mining area in a land of immense beauty with red earth, crystal white salt and lacy eucalypts set against the ancient rocks 'on fire'.
In "Manuwangku Under the Nuclear Cloud" Jagath Dheeraseka expresses the fear of loss and destruction of his homeland 120km north of Tennant Creek as it is targeted for the dumping of nuclear waste 'leased' back from overseas.
Other photos that caught my attention included a stack of derelict metal cars heaped in a pile in the outback; lymography style photos of women blurred and incomplete, representing loss; and "Hull" by Alan Hill and Kelly Hussey-Smith which shows the other side of the nothern UK city so often considered ugly. Fitting easily in the surrounds are the works of Ed Janes and Eva Fernandez both giving us a glimpse into the past with photographs of the urban ruins of Perth.
A photograph not as frightening as the nuclear-swept wooden hut of my child's memory but a photo before the explosion of the same building specifically constructed for the nuclear testing in Nevada in the early 50's was a powerful image for me. I had always thought it to have been a real house, not a construct. It did make it better in a way. Still, ghosts upon ghosts.
One series silently asks to shake off our complacency and look at "rooms from elsewhere' that are not like our own; I felt worryingly relieved that they are elsewhere and they are not like mine.
I couldn't help taking photos of the inspiring workshops venue with its machines and its huge patterned ceiling casting shadows in the late afternoon light. I tried to capture a photo of a lady taking a photo of the ceiling. I looked behind me to see if anyone was taking a photograph of me. Too many layers. Time to leave but I will go back to see some more.
As I passed the beautiful colourful outdoor exhibit of miniature deck chairs and change rooms crafted in the Atelier workshop I noticed that the label was starting to be covered over with sand, somehow echoing the themes of the day.
Divergence: Photographs from Elsewhere is an important exhibition. The photos are wonderful and diverse and the atmosphere is dramatic. It is on for another three weeks until April 14 at the Midland Railway Workshops in Yelverton Street, Midland. The exhibition is open from Wednesdays to Saturdays from 10.00am to 4.00pm. There is plenty of parking across the road next to the train line, the working one that is; there are still two desolate train lines within the complex that lead to nowhere.
The exhibition is free. There are shaded alfresco areas where you can sit and relax and talk about how glad you are not to have missed it. On Saturdays the eating area is open. On other days head across the line to the eating areas, and why not stroll around the shops, boutiques and restaurants while you are in Midland and get the feel of this historic town.
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!date 14/03/2012 -- 15/04/2012
%wnperth
150691 - 2023-06-14 04:32:37