SAMMY HAWKER

Salt includes works from a recent trip across Australia, travelling from the East Coast (the Yuin Nation & Arakwal Country) to Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre (Arabana Country).

These are places where a quiet magic resonates; where the water leaves the blood sparkling in your veins; where the horizon disappears and the sound of nothingness compresses around you. Places where you lie on your back and feel the relief of your insignificance under the brittle diamond stars.

In my practice I look for ways to co-create imagery with the places I am working. Many of the photographs in this show have been processed in the location they were captured and exposed to traces of salt found within the site (ocean water, salt crust).

When processing photographic negatives with salt, the corrosive properties lift the silver emulsion and the representational image is rendered vague.

Still, an essence of the site is introduced to the frame as the vibrant matter paints its way onto the negative, a reminder of the dynamic agency of the more-than human, the unresolved mysteries that exist around us and the resonance of the deeper forces that will so creatively interrogate and transform a photograph.

KEY DETAILS

Opening Night: 6pm Friday 10 February. The opening night will include a Welcome to Country by Ngunawal Custodian Tyronne Bell, and opening remarks from Senior Curator of Visual Arts at Canberra Museum and Gallery, Virginia Rigney. Sponsored by Capital Brewing & Poor Toms Gin.

Register your attendance here.

Where: The Mixing Room Gallery at Thor’s Hammer, 10 Mildura St, Griffith, ACT.

Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 8-5pm, Saturdays 9-1pm [the artist will sit the gallery till 4pm on Saturday 18 February, 25 February, 4 March & 25 March].