PASSION AND PASSION – ANDREAS SMETANA

Passion and Passion, an exhibition of photographs by Andreas Smetana is a study in duality, iconography and realism.

Smetana placed half-clad men and women in a transparent plastic cross and captured them in a variety of urban and bucolic settings. The effect is a striking mixture of expanse and constraint.

Passion and Passion 3 shows an Aboriginal man with his arms outstretched, framed against an endless red plain spotted with spinifex and dust. His hands are raised in supplication. Is he begging for freedom, or perhaps, resigned to his fate, waiting for the landscape to consume him?

Each picture creates a similar paradox. Separate, yet part of the whole, the translucent covering both protects and exposes the vulnerable body within.

These depictions are intriguing, intellectually challenging and oddly beautiful. They ponder infinite possibilities and are a quest to reconcile the opposing forces of nature and man. (LR)

Until Sep 29, Black Eye Gallery, Suite 3, 138 Darlinghurst Rd, Darlinghurst, Free, blackeyegallery.com.au