A hidden place in an intimate space

ART Gallery of Ballarat thought it was time to be an active exhibitor in the Ballarat International Foto Biennale as well as a venue for its block busters.

Photographer Jane Burton was one of two artists approached by the Gallery’s Director Louise Tegart with a commission for an exhibition.

Burton’s show of seven large photographs titled, The sunken garden, at the Gallery as part of the Biennale, opens on Saturday, 24 August.

“This year we wanted to actually do some exhibitions that were Gallery initiated, so as a big fan of Jane’s work, I approached her,” Ms Tegart said. “We had no strict idea about what to expect, it was more we love your work, can you do something with us for the Biennale.”

In a new series of photographs Burton turned her camera at the country around Ballarat.

She was attracted by the macabre possibilities suggested by long-submerged trees now emerging from a body of water.

“I’ve been coming up to Ballarat and its regions for some time and have become very familiar with the area,” Burton said. “This particular location I wasn’t familiar with was suggested to me by friends, I only had to see it to know that it was perfect for me and my aesthetic.

“I wanted to situate the work, that I was going to be shown at the Ballarat Gallery, to be in a landscape I photographed in this region.”

Ms Tegart said the photographs depict an ordinary scene of a dam with low water levels, but they convey an extraordinary dark and brooding scene of loss and devastation.

“These photographs bring Burton’s unique Gothic vision to an apparently prosaic and familiar scene,” she said.

As a first-time exhibitor at FOTO, Burton said she is especially pleased to be showing at the Gallery.

She prefers hanging her work in enclosed spaces within a gallery.

“The mood in my work is really important in creating atmosphere, I want the audience to feel what I felt when I was there in the landscape,” Burton said.

The other exhibition commission by the Gallery for the Biennale is Eugenia Lim’s Yellow Peril.

It features photos and a video taken at Sovereign Hill and reflects her experience as a child of Chinese immigrants.

Ms Tegart said it was entirely coincidental the two shows are both Ballarat focussed.

“So, we get to showcase Ballarat to a huge audience.”