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June 2, 2010
I've always struggled to represent the Australian bush. I find it difficult to translate the 3 dimensional messiness into a concise two dimensional form. I have enormous respect for those who are able to do so.
Once such person is Marzena Wasikowska, a Polish born and Canberra-based visual artist who works with the photographic medium in portraiture and in the landscape both in Australia and Europe.
Marzena Wasikowska, archive 41, from Forensic Landscapes
Forensic Landscapes refers to landscapes from the scene of the crime. The observer is located in the Australian landscape at the scene and he/she look for signs, evidence, evidence in Intimate nooks that suggest the presence of human activity.
Marzena Wasikowska, Forensic Landscape 3
What remains unstated is evidence of what? What are we looking for? Remains of the colonial past? Past crimes? Indifference to the environment? Ecological trashing? I cannot tell.
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Marzena Wasikowska's partner is John Reid, also a Canberra-based photographer. It's an interesting project.
John Reid co-ordinates the Environment Studio, School of Art, Australian National University.
The Environment Studio provides academic supervision and logistic assistance for sustained field research on environmental issues in conjunction with any of the School's Workshops.