Entrepot Gallery, Centre for the Arts, 37 Hunter Street, Hobart

An autobiographical photographic depiction that takes us on a satirical climate activism journey.

Presenter(s):

• School of Creative Arts and Media

Incipient by Victoria Haberley

“Incipient” is an autobiographical photographic depiction that takes us on a satirical climate activism journey. Themes span from that of survival of the bushfires of Christmas 2019 in Batemans Bay NSW to Climate Refugee homelessness relocation in Tasmania.

Incipient is defined as the growth stage in a fire or a person growing and developing into a role. Photos are framed to take us from the dark undertones on the day of the final fire through to changing light with resettlement in Tasmania, stateless, homeless. The artist plays with natural light, and post production effects to find the truth of each moment.  There are also layers of light in the satirical posing, literal layers in the blue body paint of “woman not smiling” or light reflecting of the disco gold pants that jar against dark black cliffs in “the 70’s called they want their oil back”. One black and white photo to establish nostalgia for an era we long for that no longer exists. The safety of a time free of climate war.

Emotions are evoked through the mirror of the camera. Beginning with the chaos of burnt bush merged with naked white flesh of the narrator. The Incipient journey begins here in the bare nudity of trauma through the poses of absolute surrender of a naked middle-aged woman on a burnt log and completes in a new Island home, the same body now clothed in costumes of pop culture references such as the hand maid tale. The message is growing, the artist growing into the role of climate activist story teller. Incipient growth from powerless survivor to empowered story teller.

The Story not just told with photos but in words, the artist becoming the real-life library book.  The DNA of the survived experience escaping via her own words, you just have to ask her, she is happy to entwine you in the Incipient tendrils until you grow and develop too.

Dates

30th June to 14th July 2022
10am – 3pm weekdays
School of Creative Arts and Media

Entrepot Gallery
Centre for the Arts
37 Hunter Street, Hobart

Image details: Victoria Haberley, Naked nanna prepping