exhibition review: ellipsis

Holly Granville-Edge, Thunderhead, 2013, digital inkjet print

Ellipsis is a photography exhibition by four talented Canberra-based emerging artists exploring narrative and truth. Natalie Azzopardi, Holly Granville-Edge, Katherine Griffiths and Amy McGregor share a common urge to explore the limitations and opportunities of the value of truth in photography.

‘Drawing inspiration from what is not written, but remains suggestive, Ellipsis features incomplete, cinematic, fabricated and dreamlike narratives with a focus on rethinking the visual story,’ the artists said.

ANCA gallery, with the support of the Australian National Capital Artists Inc. and the ACT Government, supports emerging and established artists and released these words in a statement about the exhibition:

‘The exhibition title, Ellipsis, refers to a punctuation device for writing; three dots strategically placed where words have been omitted. It can be used to simplify a long, complex body of text. It can add stillness with an underlying message to breathe, it can leave an open space within a quote or can provide readers with the freedom to form their own conclusion.’

Although we love our words here at Lip, we think this is a beautiful concept!

I caught up with one of the artists, Holly Granville-Edge, to discuss inspirations seen in her work.

As far as group inspiration goes, Holly mentions that herself and the other artists involved in Ellipsis all share a love of quirky, lyrical, narrative and tableau photography and film which has manifested in their work:

‘When I was invited into the show, I knew that it would be an exhibition exploring fictions and narrative in photography and that was really intriguing to me. What evolved interestingly over the months preceding the show was how we all interpreted those themes, and how a common thread of mystery seemed to link the resulting works together.’

Recent feedback Holly received on her work from the head of the photomedia department at the ANU School of Art mentioned that each of the series in the show had a slightly different, subtle take on the concept of narrative:

‘I took that as a compliment. I like to think it shows that mine and the other artist’s work is operating in such a way as to pose questions of the viewer – rather than laying out obvious answers,’ Holly said.

If you haven’t yet been, be sure to get yourself there this week. The exhibition runs until Sunday 10 November 2013. ANCA Gallery opening hours are 12-5pm Wednesday-Sunday.

For more info visit www.anca.net.au