ONCE UPON A TIME
$3,600
Once upon a time a centre called Don Dale housed youth in detention. The children were moved to a neighbouring facility and the old site was left unoccupied after a Royal Commission recommended its closure in 2018. The jungle began to take over.
I captured this photograph of the old Don Dale site using 35mm black and white film and developed the print in a photographic dark room. I then rubbed a thin layer of transparent oil colours over its surface to evoke a surreal blurring between the real and the imagined. I made the frame by casting an old classical frame and pouring in resin with translucent inks. ‘Once Upon a Time’ illicits the language of fairy tales, dreams and child-like longing. But in this case, ‘Once Upon a Time’ represents a true place that existed/exists to incarcerate our young people.
Oil on silver gelatin print, hand-poured resin frame
60 x 90cm
Artist Statement: Georgie Mattingley is a visual artist based in Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Her practice spans across photography, film-making, painting and social practice.
She uses kitsch aesthetics and beauty to destabilise the everyday values assigned to people, places and social structures. Through this method of ‘beautifying’ complex spaces, she aims to suspend our moral judgments so they can be viewed with a deeper empathy and new understanding.
Contact Tactile Arts on 08 8981 6616 or admin@tactilearts.org.au to purchase.
