Susan Purdy lives and works in the Strezlecki Ranges, in Gippsland, on the South Eastern corner of Australia. Her work is focused upon reinterpretation of early photographic practices. It is in a number of significant public collections including the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
The photogram process still seems like big magic to me, like radiation. It enables me to explore the energy and structure of various forms.
Beyond these arrangements, blackness is the true subject of the work. This blackness enables me to talk about night, infinity and death. Darkness is traditionally associated with evil and light with good, but in my work it represents a healing space. It embraces the idea that to become empty in a Buddhist sense is to be enriched and open to everything.
There is always a wild or mysterious element involved in making a photogram; the process can never be completely planned or controlled. The works are the product of both constructive planning and chance.
With each image I physically create a place; the picture plane, to open the possibility of contacting something primal, ancient, persistent in the psyche and in nature, from which it is possible to learn about both the present moment and our place in an old ecology.
Please contact susanpurdyphotography@gmail.com for any inquiries regarding exhibitions, print sales and editorial work.
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