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Bugs on show at QUT
QUT Art Museum will celebrate the exceptional work of acclaimed Brisbane photographer Joachim Froese, with a solo exhibition focusing on works from the last decade of his practice, on from June 4 to August 16.
Still Life: Joachim Froese Photographs 1999-2008 includes works from five series including the series Rhopography, which shows insects involved in Shakespearian dramas of beauty, passion and death, or epic battles involving confrontation, struggle and defeat.
While the majority of them look most realistic, in reality the insects are all dead and are posed by the artist. Often he has to reattach limbs with glue and glue wings into position, and he uses tooth floss to suspend insects to make them appear as if they’re flying.
Brisbane-based Froese himself has lived an animated life; born in Canada to German parents and then raised in Germany, he migrated with his own family to Australia in 1991, settling in Tasmania with a subsequent move to Brisbane.
He works with both film and digital photography, exploring notions of reality and illusion through his technical skill with a camera. His works play with photographic tricks such as flipping negatives to create images of objects that never actually existed.
Curator Simone Jones says the exhibition coincides with the much-anticipated launch of a major monograph on Froese’s work, published by the Queensland Centre for Photography and funded by Arts Queensland.
“He creates beautiful and precise works that challenge preconceived ideas about photography and the representation of truth,†Jones said.
As well as the insect-themed Rhopography, Still Life also features four other series of Froese’s work; Species which references Dan Brown’s The da Vinci Code with comic animal figurines positioned to depict Biblical situations, as well as Written in the past, Archive, and Portrait of my mother.
The exhibition is accompanied by free public programs, and an external visit of the artist’s studio (27 June).
Still Life: Joachim Froese Photographs 1999-2008 | 4 June to 16 August 2009
QUT Art Museum | Address 2 George Street, Brisbane (next to City Botanic Gardens)
Web www.artmuseum.qut.com | Phone 07 3138 5370
Opening hours: Tues to Fri 10am – 5pm, Wed 10am – 8pm, Sat and Sun 12pm – 4pm
