"Perfect Strangers: Denis Beaubois, Deej Fabyc, Alex Kershaw, Sandy Nicholson, Deborah Ostrow, Elvis Richardson, Silvia Velez, Justene Williams"
2001-02-16 until 2001-03-17
Canberra Contemporary Art Space
Braddon, AC, AU

This exhibition of photo and video-based artists considers the cameras role in the contemporary collapse between public and private spheres. How does photography and the mass saturation of imagery affect notions of social agency and ethics in the contemporary world. Submerging itself in complex sets of psychological and social relationships formed via camera-based representation, such as masquerade, pose and performance, a type of dialogue emerges between these Australian practitioners and their international peers such as Jeff Wall and Nan Goldin.

Perfect Strangers stages a set of encounters between the individual, private figure and public space. Who do we become in the public register of photography - the register of memory and historyNULL How do our daily encounters with strangers influence our own understanding of societyNULL These questions engage the viewer as they interact with the artwork - Deej Fabyc's tacky late 70's snapshots of drunken school buddies at the Australian National University bar, uncomfortably conjure up our own embarrassing memories, while Elvis Richardson's video installation features the artist endlessly repeating a joke about a serial killer, thus distancing the viewer from its impact.

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