Plimsoll Gallery, Hunter Street, Hobart
Summary:A unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of contemporary photographic portraiture
Shea Kirk, self portrait
Large Format Photography workshop with artist Shea Kirk
Please join us for this in-person Large Format Photography workshop with artist Shea Kirk
Saturday 29 July 2023
10am - 4pm
Plimsoll Gallery
University of Tasmania
37 Hunter St, Hobart
This is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of contemporary photographic portraiture with an in-depth look at Shea’s personal practice, sharing his passion as you are guided through the steps to create a portrait. Focusing on the slow and intentional process inherent to large format, learn about what’s involved – from loading film to making the final exposure – as Shea breaks down the physics, and how to work with these cameras, into simple steps. Suitable for all levels of knowledge and experience, from those who have never picked up a camera before, to those who already shoot film and are curious about making the jump to large format.
About the artist
Shea Kirk is a Melbourne-based contemporary artist working with traditional photographic methods and techniques.
He won the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 and Art Handlers’ Award 2020, received Honourable Mention Bowness Photography Prize (2021), was Highly Commended Olive Cotton Award (2021), has been shortlisted for prizes including Bowness Photography Prize (2020 & 2022); Olive Cotton Award (2019, 2023); National Photographic Portrait Prize (2019 & 2022); Head On Portrait Prize (2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 & 2023); Photo Collective Stories (2021), and participated in a number of exhibitions across Australia including Melbourne Now (2023) at National Gallery of Victoria and 100 faces (2023) at MAPh. He has exhibited selections from an ongoing portrait series titled Vantages – Centre for Contemporary Photography (2019) and Daine Singer for PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography (2021). His work is held in both private and public collections.
About this event
This workshop is co-presented with the University of Tasmania School of Creative Arts and Media and is associated with the exhibition Interfacial Intimacies now showing at the Plimsoll Gallery from 8 June – 5 August 2023.
What does it mean to be the absolute essence of yourself without being attached to any of it?
For a long time, philosophers have sought to define the essential aspects of the self. In contemporary culture, exclamations such as “be true to yourself”, “you’re not being yourself” consider that the ‘self’ is defined and a trustworthy container within which you can be found. Emerging theories of selfhood recognise that it isn’t so simple. We know that we can have as many social selves as the people who recognise us. Rather than being fixed and always coherent, an alternative understanding is that our personalities can be participated in as a plethora of parallel processes and possibilities. Of transformation. Of continuous becoming.
Interfacial Intimacies brings together artists who hold and express tenderly the multiple aspects of their selves through a series of portraiture and anti-portraiture. Photography, film, installations, sculpture, textile, and performance in this exhibition explore the tensions of our networked personalities - our shadows, our masks, our shame.
Artists: Bruno Booth, Amrita Hepi, Léuli Eshrāghi, Bhenji Ra, Aleks Danko, Cassie Sullivan, Georgia Morgan, Cigdem Aydemir, David Rosetzky, and Shea Kirk.
Curator: Caine Chennatt
GALLERY OPENING HOURS
8 June – 5 August
11am – 4pm Tuesdays – Saturdays
Closed Sundays, Mondays and public holidays
Exhibition development received assistance through the Contemporary Art Tasmania Exhibition Development Fund and was produced by the University of Tasmania – Library and Cultural Collections
Artwork image credits :
- Poppy Paraw (left and right view) 2020 Shea Kirk
- Shea Kirk, self portrait
