We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Marian Drew / Australia b.1960 / Cabbage and bowl 1987 / Type C photograph on paper ed. 1/10 / 50.7 x 40.5cm / Purchased 1988 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Marian Drew
Marian DrewCabbage and bowl 1987
Not Currently on Display
In Cabbage and bowl, Marian Drew combines cabbage leaves and drapery with blurred images of her hands and face moving through the image, a play on the traditional still life.
Drew’s photographs become the documentation of a ritual which has taken place before the camera. Therefore, they are not the documentation of a reality which exists independent of the camera. Drew does not carefully preplan her images. She selects her various props and then spontaneously interacts with them before the open shutter, allowing her subconscious complete freedom.
The results are generally ambiguous and can be interpreted in numerous ways. Colour plays an important part in expressing the particular emotions which Drew is seeking.
Marian Drew is one of the most important contemporary photographers in Queensland. Born in Bundaberg, she studied at the Canberra School of Art before winning a scholarhip to study in Germany. Drew now lives and works in Brisbane where she is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Queensland College of Art, and she was a participating artist in the First Asia Pacific Triennial in 1993.
She creates her own fantasies and narratives with elaborate props, costumes and artificial lighting. Using long exposures of fifteen minutes, she constructs her subjects from blurred movements, slide projected images, and by ‘painting’ with torches and lights. Drew says of her process: ‘The open aperture is witness to the display of a different reality: a reality resulting from the marriage of ideas and experiences to specific sites.’