We, Us, Them: CCP x Belfast Exposed
We, Us, Them represents the first outcome of a collaborative relationship between Belfast Exposed (Belfast, UK) and the Centre for Contemporary Photography. Conceived as part of the 2021-22 UK/Australia Season and reflecting this collaborative structure, the project is driven by the question of ‘what does it mean to represent a community?’ In exploring collaborative outcomes, CCP and Belfast Exposed have positioned We, Us, Them as a platform through which a diverse group of artists explore personal reflections on collaboration, communal history, identity and place.
Attempts to capture or encapsulate smaller communities and groups are often predicated upon power structures that essentialise and flatten—the artists featured in We, Us, Them approach this representation from a rich variety of viewpoints, charting multiple expressions of group and community identity, whilst also exploring the basis of collaboration. What does collaboration mean for empowering groups? What can be achieved in amplifying rarely heard voices in contemporary photography? What do the foundational concepts within the contemporary practice (such as the archive, documentation and collaboration) mean for the creation of community?
Working in Tjuntjuntjara, in the Great Victoria Desert, WA, Michelle Anderson, Katy Brown, Sophia Brown, Maureen Donegan, Timo Hogan (with Louise Allerton) will present recently produced photographic and video work exploring their community’s existing sign language usage, a language that has existed alongside spoken Pitjantjatjara language forever. Producing their work in collaboration with Milpa Space, Spinifex Arts Project, this body of work is driven by the next generation of young artists in Tjuntjuntjara, and reflects this new generation’s interest in digital photography and video.
We, Us, Them: CCP x Belfast Exposed exhibited from 18 February—17 April 2022. Visit ccp.org.au for current exhibitions at the Centre for Contemporary Photography.
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