This exhibition of landscape photography explores the mystery and melancholy of the Australian landscape by re-constructing and subverting three iconic landscape settings. In Peter McMahon’s photographs of Coober Pedy, a lone cowboy stands in a deserted petrol station emptied of cars or any other signs of human life. Peter Lang’s photographs of Sydney’s White Bay power station transform that environment into limpid pools of colour, towering over a shadowy streetscape. Paul Mallam’s photographs explore the gothic landscape of Sydney’s mangroves, where a pink inflatable ring sits eerily on the water, and there are other glimpses of a passing human presence.
The exhibition challenges viewers to re-engage with recognisable landscape images in new and interesting ways, while playing with the conventions of the medium of landscape photography. With their focus on the mine-scarred desert landscape of Coober Pedy, an abandoned and crumbling power station and the mangrove tides which wash up and sweep away remnants of human existence, these images also poignantly remind the viewer of the transience of human life, especially on the Australian continent.
