Collaborative capture up for prize

THE masked-up, photographed face of Ballarat artist Heather Horrocks has been shortlisted for Caloundra Regional Gallery’s Sunshine Coast Art Prize.

She, the Empiricist is a 2021 photograph by Karenne Ann depicting Horrocks wearing her own videotape plague mask.

“I originally commissioned Karenne to record my work for my website. That was one of the pieces, and for want of another model, she stuck it on me,” Horrocks said.

“We’ve been saying it’s not a portrait but a narrative and a landscape, and the material is a real surprise to people.”

Ann said she had a “lightbulb moment” as soon as she looked down the lens and saw Horrocks in the mask.

“I went, oh my god, that’s it. We realised it was a pretty powerful image,” she said.

Horrocks has made five additional masks alongside the one featured in the photo, which was constructed in 2020 as a response to COVID-19.

“I made the mask during the anti-science activity that came around during the first lockdown and it’s completely ineffectual.

“It’s a statement about how science is important, and an empiricist was an early scientist,” she said.

“There’s a humorous part to this. It’s dress-up. None of these masks are effective at all and that’s part of the joke, really.”

Having been studio acquaintances in Footscray about 20 years ago, the pair previously collaborated for a Victoria University MetroWest gallery show on World War One’s impact on women.

She, the Empiricist is on display in Caloundra until mid-next month, and the prize will be awarded on Thursday, 6 October.