Telling Tales: the Child in Contemporary Photography

Dates:
1 August – 9 September 2000

Artists:
Di Barrett, Pat Brassington, Kate Butler, Anne Ferran, Bill Henson, Nicola Loder, Mark McDean, Tracey Moffatt, Deborah Paauwe, Polixeni Papapetrou, Ronnie van Hout

Curators:
Katarina Paseta and Samantha Vawdrey

Location:
Monash University Gallery
Monash University, Clayton Campus

Touring:
Bendigo Art Gallery, Bendigo, VIC
18 November – 10 December 2000

Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Campbelltown, NSW
23 March – 29 April 2001

Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, SA
7 June – 14 July 2001

Warrnambool Art Gallery, Warnambool, VIC
4 August – 22 September 2001

Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, WA
4 October – 11 November 2001

About the exhibition
A nuanced take on contemporary Australian photographic practices, Telling Tales was developed by Monash University Gallery before touring nationally. Featuring eleven artists working with children and childhood as subject matter, the exhibition was a nod to the performative aspects of photography’s history, as well as the medium’s inherent relation to memory, desire, the ‘real’ and manipulated imagery. Artists variously explored the representation and symbology of the child through family albums, portraiture, found imagery and tableaux, often undermining any romanticised visions of childhood.

MUMA Online Exhibition Archive
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^{Image: Kate Butler, The Chimerical Daughter 1999 (detail), type C photograph, 16 parts, 100 x 100 x 13 cm each. Courtesy of the artist}