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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 Finalist
This portrait is an homage to the Melbourne artist Mirka Mora and in a broader sense, the place of 'family' within artistic practice. The work was inspired by a story in Mirka Mora's biography, My Life: Wicked but Virtuous. It describes how Mirka spontaneously decorated her face with zinc cream and mascara one dull Sunday afternoon at her holiday house in Aspendale. The 'performance' was designed to enliven an otherwise mundane family Sunday dinner. A photograph was taken which later appeared on the cover of the influential '60s underground publication, Oz magazine. As Mirka herself recalled 'You can't do better than that on a Sunday afternoon, and it makes me think of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Time is like a river made up of the events which happen, and its current is strong; no sooner does anything appear than it is swept away, and another comes in its place, and will be swept away too.'
In its second year at the National Portrait Gallery, and for the first time touring to other venues, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2009 continues to present surprising perspectives on the nature of contemporary portrait photography.
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