UNDER THE SUN: REIMAGINING MAX DUPAIN’S SUNBAKER
The Australian Centre for Photography is hosting an exciting new exhibition titled Under the Sun that reimagines photographer Max Dupain’s famous Australian Sunbaker photograph. The exhibition marks the 80th anniversary of Sunbaker and sees 15 commissioned artists from diverse backgrounds reinterpret Dupain’s unique work by extending the theme of the original photograph to explore modern day issues such as cultural and national identity in Australia. The 15 artists are using the phrase “Is there something new under the sun?” to explore if Australia is truly a multi-cultural, multi-faith, multi-ethnic society. Max Dupain’s Sunbaker photograph was an interpretation of Australian culture at a specific time but it could also be open to a new point of view about our country’s current social and political climate.
Claire Monneraye the curator of The Australian Centre for Photography told us, “I consciously selected artists who I knew would be potentially quite controversial in their response to the theme through the work they create”. It’s not the first time Sunbaker has been reinterpreted; in the 70s and 00s the photograph was used a lot for advertising in mass media campaigns and even used as an image for a sunblock product.
Not only does this exhibition produce meaning beyond the original interpretation it also celebrates a time when the art of photography was establishing itself as an art form. An iconic photograph such as Sunbaker was a simple photoshoot of an English migrant innocently laying down at the beach after a swim and it captured what Australia was in the 1930s but in the 21st century what it means to be an Australian can be interpreted in many ways and that’s what this exhibition captures on a much deeper level.
Until Apr 17. The State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, Sydney. FREE. Info: www.sl.nsw.gov.au
By Daniel Jaramillo.
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