Acquisition - NGV: 'Picturing the Island' (2016)

Description

'Picturing the Island' takes the form of a collection of texts and images that present the Central Pacific island Banaba (once known as Ocean Island) as a recollection. This regrouping grants these memories another moment of life. Many of the images are portraits of people in groups, staring somewhat resentfully at the photographer’s apparatus, the camera. In contrast to these stern stares, the last image of the book pictures my sister and me as children on Banaba, as we smile happily up at my mother taking the photograph. In this, perhaps, we might observe the gulf between a willingly photographed subject and the subject of ethnographic documentation.
This project was made possible with the generous support of the Siganto Foundation, the Australian Library of Art at State Library of Queensland and the Queensland Library Foundation.

Period	2017 → …
Held at	Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria (trading as National Gallery of Victoria (NGV)) (Victoria), Australia, Victoria