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| "Olympia - Photographs from Polixeni Papapetrou" Exhibit |
“Olympia: Photographs by
Polixeni Papapetrou” exhibition, the first major museum retrospective of
Australian photographer Polixeni Papapetrou’s (1960–2018) work, was curated in
collaboration with the artist’s family. Opened last September 27, 2019 at
the Ian
Potter Center: NGV Australia, the show runs until March 29, 2020.
Check out "Ian Potter Center: NGV Australia"
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| The Dreamkeepers (2012) at left and Eden (2016) at right |
Polixeni Papapetrou has been
the recipient of numerous grants from the Australia Council for the Arts and
Arts Victoria. She is also the recipient
of the following awards:
- MAMA Art Foundation
National Photography Prize (2016)
- Windsor Art Award (2015)
- Josephine Ulrick and Win
Shubert Photography Award (2009)
- Albury Regional Art Gallery
National Photographic Award (2003)
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| Melancholia (2014) - Melancholia (left) and Pathos (right) |
Her work has featured in over
50 solo exhibitions, and over 100 group exhibitions in Australia, the
United States, Asia and Europe. Survey exhibitions were held at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne (2013) and the Australian Centre forPhotography, Sydney (2011). Polixeni Papapetrou has exhibited in major international photography festivals including:
- ‘The European Month of
Photography” (Berlin, 2016)
- “Daegu Photo Biennale” (South Korea,
2016)
- “The European Month of
Photography” (Athens, 2016)
- “Dong Gang International Photo
Festival” (South Korea, 2014)
- “Fotografica Bogota” (Colombia,
2013)
- “Photofestival Noorderlicht”
(The Netherlands, 2012)
- “3rd Biennale Photoquai” (Lemusée du quai Branly, Paris, 2011)
- ‘The Month of Photography”
(Bratislava, 2010)
- “Pingyao International
Photography Festival” (Pingyao, Shanxi, China, 2010)
- “Athens Festival of
Photography” (Athens, Greece, 2010)
- “Fotofreo, Fremantle
Festival of Photography” (Perth, 2008)
- “Seoul International
Photography Festival” (Seoul, 2008)
- “Le Mois de la Photo” (Montreal,
2005)
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| Games of Consequence (2008) |
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| My Heart – Still Full of Her (2018) |
The exhibit comprises
photographs by Papapetrou (1960–2018) who created fantastical worlds featuring
her children Olympia Nelson and
Solomon Nelson, and their friends, set against both real and imagined
backdrops, reflecting a limitless world of play acting, imagination and
storytelling. The photo series she has
made include Elvis Presley fans, Marilyn
Monroe impersonators, drag queens,
wrestlers, circus performers and bodybuilders and the recreation of photographs
by Lewis
Carroll using her daughter Olympia as a model.
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| Phantomwise (2002-03) |
The photos cover the period
from Olympia’s birth (1997) until the artist’s death from breast cancer on
April 11, 2018. Daughter Olympia played a particularly important role in the
artist’s image making, assuming the complex roles of model and muse,
collaborator and champion.
The exhibit surveys 20 years
of Papapetrou’s practice and includes works from her best-known series, as well
as lesser-known images. Her photographs explore the relationship between
history, contemporary culture, identity, and the construction of childhood and
adolescence.
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| The Photographer (The Dreamkeepers, 2012) |
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| The Holiday Makers (The Dreamkeepers, 2012) |
In The Dreamkeepers series, from 2011-12, the children dress as
adults and wear strange masks to form an unusual family in the scenic
countryside.
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| Wild World (Games of Consequence, 2008) |
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| Miles From Nowhere (Games of Consequence, 2008) |
The Games of Consequence series, from 2008, explores themes of
childhood, nostalgic memories of play and the idea of “stranger danger.”
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| Grief (Melancholia, 2014) |
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| Sorrow (Melancholia, 2014) |
The Melancholia series, from 2014, reflects on the impact of
Papapetrou’s breast cancer diagnosis. It explores the theme of death,
representations of clowns, and the significance of masks in the artist’s work.
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| Ask Me Again When I'm Drunk (It's All About Me, 2016) |
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| It's All About Me (2016) |
The series It’s All About Me, from 2015-16, was created
when Olympia was a teenager and navigating the world of social media. It
explores popular culture, the sexualization of youth and feminism. Standing in
confident poses, Olympia wears a mask while modeling a range of t-shirts with
provocative slogans.
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| She Saw Two Girls and a Boy 1966 # 1 (Haunted Country, 2006) |
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| Whroo 1855 (Haunted Country, 2006) |
In the series Haunted Country, from 2006, Olympia,
Solomon and their friends pose as both real and fictional children in the Australian
landscape. The photo She saw two girls and a boy 1966 #1 (2006) was inspired by
three Duff children who disappeared from the beach, presumed to be abducted and
murdered in 1867. Other images from the series show children lost in the
Australian bush during the nineteenth century.
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| Jack Tar (Phantomwise, 2002) |
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| Chinese Lady (Phantomwise, 2002) |
Phantomwise (the
title is drawn from a poem by Lewis Carroll) is a series of collaborative
portraits of the five year old Olympia, from 2002-2003, in which the use of
half-masks, props and costumes (often as simple as a walking stick or a set of
kid’s silk Chinese pyjamas) work together to create an artfully staged Victoria
photograph
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| The Immigrant (Lost Psyche, 2014) |
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| The Storyteller (Lost Psyche, 2014) |
The series Lost Psyche, a suite of ten
photographs, brings to life a lost past of once important emblematic and cultural
roles that are at the end of their place in the world and now viewed as relics
of the past. The Immigrant, for example, portrays a nineteenth-century
immigrant (played by Olympia). Papapetrou’s parents came from Greece to Melbourne.
The work is also a metaphor
for the journey from childhood (a time in which we openly switch between
characters, identities and roles) to adulthood. Bringing together painted
scenic backdrops, paper masks and costumes, with the children as actors, the
work reflects upon the persistence of some historical conditions and the
disappearance of others.
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| Olympia as Alice Dreaming by the Riverbank (Dreamchild, 2003) |
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| Olympia as Beatrice Hatch Before White Cliffs (Dreamchild, 2003) |
In the series Dreamchild, Papapetrou explores
different aspects of childhood and the child’s imagination through the roles,
archetypes and performances as acted out by her six-year old daughter, Olympia.
Her photographs rework the theatricality and vivid tableaux style of Lewis
Carroll’s images of Alice Liddell,
the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,
and other child subjects such as Xie Kitchin and Irene McDonald who
participated in costume dramas before his camera.
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| Blinded (Eden, 2016) |
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| Heart (Eden, 2016) |
In the series Eden, the language of flowers is used to
explore life itself with girls in the photographs are adorned with floral
arrangements to reflect on their metamorphosis from child to adolescent and
adolescent to adult, and a oneness with the world, fertility and the cycles of
life. The girls are enclosed in a floral embrace that symbolize their unity and
acceptance of this miraculous thing we call life.
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| I Once Was (My Heart, Still Full of Her, 2018) |
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| Muse (My Heart, Still Full of Her, 2018) |
My
Heart, Still Full of Her
is a suite of somber yet luminous silkscreen portrait photographs, with their
glowing halo of gold and silver, of the artist and her daughter Olympia. Here,
mother and daughter are almost interchangeable revealing their profoundly
intimate relationship.
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| The Witch's House (Fairy Tales, 2003) |
Fairy
Tales, from 2004 – 2014,
traces the genre of the fairy tale from the mid-19th century to now. Focusing
on well-known fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hanseland Gretel and The Little Mermaid, it provides re-interpretations of classic
fairy tales for a contemporary context.
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| The Harvesters (Between Worlds, 2009) |
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| The Loners (Between Worlds, 2009) |
Between
Worlds, from 2009-2012, is
an enigmatic animal mask series which refers to the nature of late childhood –
the cusp between innocent babyhood and the adult world.
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| Prize Thimble (Wonderland, 2004) |
The series Wonderland recreates scenes from
Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865),
specifically the illustrations created by John Tenniel (1820-1914) for the
first editions of the book. The photographs are staged and do not involve
computer manipulation. Olympia, in the role of Alice, is situated against a
painted canvas that sweeps from wall to floor.
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| Pepper Soup (Wonderland, 2004) |
Olympia: Photographs by
Polixeni Papapetrou: Level 3, The Ian
Potter Center: NGV Australia, FederationSquare, Melbourne. Admission is
free. Further information is available from the NGV website: NGV.MELBOURNE.
