I acknowledge and pay my respects to the Wiradjuri people, on whose land this body of work was brought together and is being shown.
Artist Statement
Joel Markham
It is ultimately Joel’s creative work that, beyond his academic pursuits, evidences his profound self-reflective practice as an artist. His work manifests as a genuine, honest and truly heartfelt expression of his philosophical musings, which are worthy of our reflective thought.
Joel uses simple but effective signature devices that deftly avoid cliché, such as allegorical and symbolic gestures, as well as apparent objectivity. These inspire metaphorical connections between his images by acting as visual isolators, often removing subjects from context, and allowing the viewer to concentrate on the bigger picture.
Joel’s recent exhibitions allegorically cast the night at odds with the delicate security of an ethereal world. They deftly referenced the contemporaneous social dislocations brought on by a pandemic through a personal response, sharing aspects of the night that are common to many of us, such as fear, isolation and loneliness. They alluded to a dream world, conjured by our minds in the dark of night, where our behaviour adjusts accordingly.
Joel’s current project is a valid deepening of these concepts, crafting mystery, as distanced from cold reality, and subsequently kindling an opportunity to explore, imagine, remember and ruminate. The result is deceptively simple images that work to broaden Joel’s own reflections on what matters, to allow us all to contemplate what matters to us as well.
Dr Jamie HolcombeSpring 2023
Travellers All: Joel Markham, The green sky (detail), 2019
The Big Picture: Joel Markham, Millennia (detail), 2023
Welcome to Mystères, my third exhibition of photography at The Curious Rabbit in Wagga Wagga!
Mystères is the French word for mysteries, with Dictionary.com defining the singular as “anything that is kept secret or remains unexplained or unknown” and “any affair, thing or person that presents features or qualities so obscure as to arouse curiosity or speculation”. While talk of mysteries might seem at odds with the data-obsessed, technologically-driven world in which we now live, it is actually the relentless nature of our twenty-first century experience that reminds us of the need to periodically change gears and reconnect with the side of life – and ourselves – that is open to the unusual, the abstract and the unknown.
By their very nature, mysteries raise questions that are not easily answered; for instance, do they exist in their own right, or are they somehow enmeshed in the terrain - earthly and otherwise - that each of us travels on a daily basis? Or are mysteries less about context and more about us - a susceptibility within the prism through which we view and clock the world as we work to make sense of our journey within it? Such questions - and the possible answers to them - are key to the core around which this body of work revolves.
I can remember thinking that as I grew older, life would become more of a known quantity, courtesy of the knowledge and experience that we amass along the way. But if anything, as I approach the end of yet another decade, it seems that life is more mysterious than ever. Perhaps this perception is fuelled by the knowledge that with each passing day, we grow closer to what is undoubtedly the greatest mystery of all – death! The loss of my father in the winter of 2022 left me in no doubt as to death’s role in the cycle of life, reminding me - in no uncertain terms - that at some point in time we will all be asked to look death in the eye and surrender to its embrace.
Art, meanwhile, is popularly perceived as holding up a mirror to the world, those who live in it and the lives that we lead, and in the process, it has the potential to bring us together in ways that nothing else can, courtesy of its cycle of making, sharing and engaging. And because art - in its multifarious forms - is no stranger to mystery, I inevitably started thinking about the possibility of harnessing my photographic practice to an exploration of the mysteries that permeate our lives.
Once this seed was planted, the Mystères project felt like it was always meant to be, and the decision to combine photographs from my past with those shot specifically for the project was similarly organic. While Mystères is not a retrospective as such, the opportunity to experiment with combinations of past and present images was most welcome - a chance to take stock, as we do, of the journey that has given rise to who and where we are at a given point in time.
With the creation of any body of work, the visual and thematic relationships between its individual components are paramount, and in the case of Mystères, the nature and passage of time - as underscored by the inclusion of photographs from my back catalogue - inevitably emerged as one of the project’s most potent and recurring motifs. But time, by its very nature, waits for no man, and accordingly, within taking the opportunity to look back, my expectation was that the project would ultimately propel both myself and my practice forward.
With Mystères now gracing the walls of The Curious Rabbit, my hope is that the photographs engage you to the extent that you are encouraged to reflect on your own relationship with life’s mysteries. For me, this act of provocation - however gentle - sees art realising its potential in the best possible way, and with that in mind, it is my pleasure to now pass these works from my hands into yours.
Joel Markham / Spring 2023
The Big Picture: Flux, 2023
The Big Picture: Millenia, 2023
The Big Picture: The temple, 2023
The Big Picture: Artery 1, 2021
Xu Zhen, Eternity vs. Evolution, National Gallery of Australia, 2021
The Human Experience: Underbelly, 2023
The Human Experience: Everyman, 2017
The Human Experience: Portal, 2021
The Human Experience: Artery 2, 2021
Xu Zhen, Eternity vs. Evolution, National Gallery of Australia, 2021
Le Théâtre de la Vie: Drive-by, 2017
Le Théâtre de la Vie: Artery 3, 2019
Amanda Stuart, Bush pack, 2011, Canberra city centre, ACT
Travellers All: Evensong, 2023
Travellers All: The green sky, 2019
Travellers All: Surrender, 2022
...is a photomedia artist based in Wagga Wagga NSW, where he uses the content and contexts of daily life to ruminate on ‘big picture’ issues like the human condition, the nature of our journey and the terrain through which it passes. Joel’s practice is driven by a fundamental need for creative exploration and expression, and from 2016-20, it was complemented by his work as a sessional lecturer at Charles Sturt University’s School of Communication and Creative Industries.
Mystères is Joel’s third exhibition at The Curious Rabbit, following on from Nocturne in 2021 and Suite 16 in 2022. His other bodies of work include Heaven and Earth (2019), Time and Place (2017) and The Quest (2014), which were shown at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery, and The Makers (2016), which was shown at Eastern Riverina Arts. In terms of qualifications, Joel holds a Master of Arts Practice in Photomedia, a BA in Graphic Design (Honours, Class 1) and a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary), all from Charles Sturt University.
Joel Markham, Heaven and Earth, WWAG, Summer 2019-20, Image: Tayla Martin
to Vickie Burkinshaw and the staff of The Curious Rabbit for hosting the exhibition; to Wagga Wagga City Council for its generous support; to Timothy Crutchett of CSU for the beautiful prints; to Karen Colvin of Wagga Picture Frames for framing them; and to Jeremy Kruckel of Ariah Park for a seamless install.
The 16 framed photographs are priced at $600 each. Unframed prints of each photograph are also available in a limited edition of five at $300 per print - protective sleeve included. Please direct your enquiries to Vickie Burkinshaw of The Curious Rabbit.
The Curious Rabbit
P: (02) 6921 5391
E: hello@thecuriousrabbit.com.au
W: thecuriousrabbit.com.au
Joel Markham Photography
M: 0498 855 533
E: info@joelmarkhamphotography.com.au
W: joelmarkhamphotography.com.au
This project is supported by an Arts, Culture and Creative Industries Grant from Wagga Wagga City Council.