24 January to 21 April 2007
His quiet, spare and yet powerful photographs invited the viewer to consider the stories, attachments and power relations that are written into a familiar landscape, investing it with meaning and transforming the original space into place.
Maynard's photographs showed steel-and-glass buildings and Indigenous artworks co-habiting a largely unpeopled landscape along the northern bank of the Yarra. These interventions highlighted the cultural resonances that create place. Maynard's balanced sense of past and present, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, suggested co-existing stories of place upon a historical continuum.
Curated by Ricky Maynard
Ricky Maynard was born in Tasmania. He trained as a photographer at the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, where he was later employed in that role. Ricky uses his camera primarily as a documentary tool, recording an Indigenous presence where often this has been razed or denied.
Now a leading photographer in this country, his photographs are held in several major collections, including at the National Gallery of Australia and the Art Gallery of NSW. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and was included in the prestigious Australian Indigenous Art Triennial, 2007.
Catalogue written by Tony Birch
Indigenous author Tony Birch has published widely in the areas of short fiction, poetry and creative non-fiction. He has also worked as curator and collaborated with photographers, filmmakers and artists.
He was the senior curator on the Koori Voices exhibition at Melbourne Museum's Bunjilaka Centre. Tony has published two collections of short fiction, Shadowboxing (2006) and Father's Day (2009).