A new exhibition opening 11 May at 6pm features stunning colour photographs of rural and remote Australia by Martin Mischkulnig, together with text written by award-winning author Tim Winton.
Mischkulnig’s spare yet beautiful photographs are distinctively Australian views of rural and remote places, evoking similar feelings to Winton’s novels. They challenge us to consider the people who live in these places, and their struggle to come to terms with harsh or isolated environments. Smalltown does not romanticise the places it documents: the images are often disturbing for the built ugliness they reveal, and Tim Winton’s words provide compelling and probing ruminations on the nature of Australian rural life.
From Fitzroy Crossing and Wittenoom in WA, across to Iron Knob and the Oodnadatta Track in SA, down to Queenstown andExeterinTasmania, Mischkulnig captures with raw honesty the monotony, stoic spirit, and transience of life in small towns. From the cinder-block motels, crooked signs and unnamed graves beside endless freeways to the towering silos, empty gravel sports grounds and derelict abandoned cars, the photographs offer both the beauty and ugliness of our far-flung towns.
