Layne Beachley AO (b. 1972), former surfer and businessperson, is the world's most successful female professional surfer. Growing up in Manly, she began to focus on surfing at age sixteen. At seventeen she turned professional, and by the time she was twenty she was ranked number six on the world circuit. During the 1990s she persevered through debilitating illness to triumph at the World Championships in 1998. She won the same title for the next five consecutive years, and took a seventh title in 2006, her seventeenth year on the tour. Beachley is now chair of Surfing Australia, and is an ambassador for various charities and causes.
Petrina Hicks was commissioned to create Beachley's portrait for the opening of the National Portrait Gallery's new building in 2008. The shoot took place in Hicks' flat in Bondi, with artist and sitter having only a few hours to build the rapport that Hicks says is essential to an effective portrait. 'It takes some time before people are willing and comfortable to bear themselves like this,' Hicks says. Having never been studied with such scrutiny before, Beachley has said she finds Hicks' portrait 'quite intensely stunning and provoking all at once ... I look so focused and at peace at the same time.'
Commissioned 2008
© Commonwealth of Australia
Petrina Hicks’ 2008 portrait of Layne Beachley is a single channel moving image, projected on a three-point-one by one-point-seven metre screen, on a continuous eleven-minute loop, with no sound.
The moving image begins with the back of Beachley’s head, set against a stark blue-grey background. Her medium-length brown hair has a layered cut with chestnut to deep brown tones. The length tapers to the middle of her back, past her bare freckled shoulders.
The figure is cropped just below the shoulders where the skin has indentations, as if a bra with thin straps has just been removed.
Beachley’s upper body turns clockwise in slow motion; her bright sapphire eyes blink slowly as she gazes directly at the viewer. Her gaze stays on the viewer while the continuous rotation of her body gives an angle to her head.
Beachley’s face is framed by her textured hair, parted slightly off centre. She wears black eyeliner and thick mascara. Her light brown eyebrows are plucked and straight with a small vertical scar on the skin between them.
The makeup on her face includes light foundation with a delicate pink rouge on her cheeks and pale pink lip gloss on her gently smiling lips.
Audio description written and voiced by Amy Middleby
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Two professionals; Australian surfer Layne Beachley and photographer Petrina Hicks, combine their strengths to achieve a remarkable portrait.
Featuring striking photographic portraits of contemporary figures from the National Portrait Gallery collection, The Look is an aesthetic treat with a lashing of je ne sais quoi.
