TACHISME: A STAIN ON PHOTOGRAPHY

Presented by Justine Varga

Hosted by Tolarno Gallery
19/02/2021
Talk #102

Image: Justine Varga, Influence from Tachisme 2018-19, chromogenic photograph, 131.5 x 110 cm framed

JUSTINE VARGA presents: ‘Tachisme: a stain on photography’

Presented in collaboration with Tolarno Galleries for PHOTO 2021

This paper will discuss the creative potential of those elements of a photograph that are usually thought to be marginal or even deleterious to its health. I will be speaking, in particular, about stains and similar pictorial imperfections. While focusing on the role of the stain and staining in my own work, I will also be seeking to place my interest within a broader history of image making. The end result will be a cerebration on the nature of photography and an argument for a certain kind of artistic practice keenly attuned to the materiality of the medium and to corporeal presence, however it is conjured. 

JUSTINE VARGA’S photographs make visible an art practice that is at once physical and chemical, autobiographical and contingent, painterly and photographic. In doing so, she asks viewers to reflect on the activity of deciphering photographs, as a critical rumination on inscription, meaning and knowledge. Varga received the Dobell Drawing Prize (2019) and the Olive Cotton Award for Photographic Portraiture (2017).