Richard Billingham at ACCA, Melbourne
Richard Billingham
Untitled (Father and Dog) 1995
Courtesy the artist and Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
PEOPLE, PLACES, ANIMALS
20 December 2007 to 24 February 2008
ADMISSION – FREE
Open
Tuesday to Friday 10am to 5pm
Weekends and Public Holidays 11am to 6pm
Monday by appointment
Open all public holidays except Christmas Day and Good Friday
ACCA
111 Sturt Street
Southbank, Victoria 3006, Australia
Review to come.
English artist Richard Billingham takes no prisoners with his approach to portraiture. Borne from the age or reality television Billingham gives the audience a view of the world far from luxury brands and everyday celebrity. His subjects are crude, grounded and honest. Highly recommended and it is free.
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This exhibition dismayed me- not because of the cruelty involved in the animal section (seen it before ) but because rather than this being part of a campaign to release these suffering prisoners, it was a cold observation displayed 3 years later so it was well in the past. The quality of the images was such that it could have been 50-60 years ago. You wouldn’t know. If it’s way in the past you don’t have to worry about it. Disturb the audience but make them powerless at the same time. It is not a call to action. It is for the already desensitized.
This exhibition has no message to me at all where there clearly should be one.
the way that he has depicted his photos are not irrelevant at all, they may be for the desensitized, but they also bring out emotion in those clod individuals. he has taken these photos from a personal perspective to remember his mother by who had albums full of these same sort of photos.
the special quality of the photos vary for a couple of reasons; initially they were only for documentary purposes to assist in his painting which is where his artistic career began and that he had no need to spend a great deal of money on film when the emotion of the photos he was trying to achieve was perfectly represented by this crude outdated film.
there doesnt have to be a message for something to be powerful, the way that the video of his father is looped and played does not warn us against anything in particular but we are mesmerised by it nonetheless.