GUEST RELATIONS – ROBYN STACEY
Image: 'Room 2015 Pullman Hyde Park, Brielle', by Robyn Stacey, 2013
One of Australia’s most acclaimed and leading contemporary art photographers, Robyn Stacey has once again produced exciting new work.
Her latest exhibit, Guest Relations, “aims to explore the hermetic, yet transient nature of the hotel room.”
Normally characterised by modern simplicity and standardised comforts, Stacey transforms the chosen rooms by wallpapering the walls with the world beyond their windows. This is done through a traditional method of photography known as camera obscura.
“By photographing the room using the pin-hole camera the external view is naturally projected back into the room, upside down and in reverse, allowing me to photograph the view and the room together in one image,” Stacey explains.
Stacey acknowledges that hotel rooms are waiting spaces, “waiting in rooms for people to arrive, for events to start, or just waiting to go home. They are also private spaces.”
Her aim to highlight the room’s private purpose is achieved through the dreamlike setting that serves as a backdrop which materialises the inhabitants distant thoughts. (TO)
Until Nov 9, Stills Gallery, 36 Gosbell St, Paddington, free, 9331 775, stillsgallery.com.au
