GENERATIONS

Siall Waterbright 1997
Gallery Aesthete
 

The works in this show respond to the way children were photographed in the past, and expectations of childhood. I was interested in capturing the way subjects respond to the photographer in snapshots, and the marked difference this makes in images of infants and young children. These girls and babies are not, however, images of images; I did not draw on actual photographs in making them. Instead, they are imagined subjects, in the act of becoming. In form and in concept, these works connect to the works in Skin, exploring surface as encounter. Communion and Baptims, however, engage more specifically with identity as it is imposed from the outside. 

The life-size images of girls and babies in the show were installed under broken glass. The lines and refractions of the shattered panes mimic the creases and scars on old photos, while also suggesting risk and the permeability of paper and skin.

It was also really fun whacking the panes of glass with a hammer.