Anne Shirley

Photographic artist Anne Shirley is based in Papamoa. Through mixed media of photography and found photographs from family photograph albums Anne forms her conceptual pratice. "The Family photograph album is a propagation in every day culture: the way it has grown and heterogeneously infused in our lives reflects that profound uncertainty. To quote Pierre Bordieu, we make and view photographs as a way of “dealing with the passing of time - a magical substitute for what time has destroyed and making up for the failure of memory."

Although seemingly banal and ritualistic it is also authorial, has a pathos and is ideologically driven. It is where we may
go to clarify and understand our identity - a performance piece of narratives and loosely fibered memories. However
those images may also present as ideological imperatives where roles and rights of passage are reinforced. A mother is no longer my mother but stands in for the idea of what a mother should look like.
So family photographs have been ritualised in the way it has been practiced and the way it documents ritual. These
albums hold secrets, tragedies and emotionally charged moments where the play and the imperative are intertwined
with the 'substitute for what time has destroyed.’
Formal: pushing together the forms found in photograph albums that point to disparity within form and concept. The
deliberate placement of disparate forms within domestic environments requires a rethink about ritual as either
transformative or normative practice.

Pūmanawa / Intuitio ( Artistic Passport Aotearoa) exhibition to me seems to be around intuition and permission which is very relevant to my practice where I manipulate photographs within the context of subjects and ideologies.

What inspired you for this exhibition?
The idea of exhibiting one work - editing isn’t a strength
The idea of permission - when using images of people there is a deep understanding of reverence.
I like the kaupapa of the gallery.

What are the themes encapsulated in your work?
Themes encapsulated are embodied actions in apposition with evaluative behaviours within the context of ritual. Its
interesting here as photography, with its retelling of stories, becomes part of the ritual - the ritual of photography.

What are your artistic influences?
Geoffrey Batchen
Roland Barthes
Pierre Bordieu
Jean Baudrillard
Martha Langford
Susan Sontag
Robert Frank
Jose Manuel Fors
Fanho
Enari Tsuneo
Gerhard Richter
Marty Friedlander
Sergei Eisenstein
Ann Ferran
Patrick Graham

(See I told you I couldn’t edit:)