Angles and cantilevers, crevices and concrete awash in the photolab
In 1994 I went to New York and was immediately seduced by this ultimate metropolis - the layers of density, population, architecture, culture, diversity. As a subject it had 'facial' features, textures, surfaces, dimensions and crevices and I photographed it like a bird who could position herself anywhere. I wanted to show the edifices of human lives, the city as fortress and mobile jigsaw whose inhabitants are both prisoners and tenants. Back in Melbourne, my reflections of NY made me look at Australian cities with fresh eyes, as cities shaped and battered by demolition, reconstruction and building booms. Organic jungles formed by the dynamics of constant change. I want the viewer to recapture the sense of revisiting a city where new buildings seem to magically materialise, where empty space disappears, where new replaces old. The city drowning under the weight of its architecture - cold steel, stone and concrete. Thus the gallery space becomes a simulated darkroom or personal theatre of aesthetic experiences. It is impossible for the viewer to construct a mental panorama of the city as a whole. Each image can only ever be a tiny peephole into an imaginary metropolis.
Pam Kleemann, 1997
This project was supported by a Pat Corrigan Artist Grant, managed by Nava with financial assistance from the Australia Council

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