NOCTURNE

Joel Markham Photography

NOCTURNE The Curious Rabbit Johnston Street WW 29 January - 2 March 2021

The memory room and beyond...

Welcome to Nocturne, my first exhibition at The Curious Rabbit!

Most of these photographs were made in 2020, and possibly in response to the year that was, they ponder the nature and significance of our relationship with the night. The formality of the frieze in which the images sit is intended to counter the uncertainty of both the night and the recent past.

As a home, earth is forever turning on its axis, and within each of its twenty-four-hour cycles, all of the planet’s inhabitants human and otherwise - experience a succession of day and night. Irrespective of who we are and where we live, we have this structure - and these relationships - in common, with days and nights inevitably turning into weeks, months, years, and eventually, a lifetime.

component of the project, fuelled, no doubt, by the fact that I was photographing at night and in relative isolation, while Covid-19 wreaked havoc on the world around me.

Accordingly, I photographed in and around my house and neighbourhood, and while the project was thereby contained, the night - by comparison - remained true to form by offering up a raft of possibilities. The challenge of the work, in fact, was to do justice to those possibilities, and with the exhibition now up and running, my hope is that visitors will be afforded a sense of the commonalities and differences that respectively unite and divide us in our pursuit of the night.

JOEL MARKHAM Summer 2021

One night last winter - out of the blue and in the very thick of the night - I awoke, went to my spare room, and instinctively reached for my camera. The small boxes that I photographed at the base of the lamp contain jewellery that belonged to D and M, and not surprisingly, I am drawn to these pieces not because of their monetary value, but because of their capacity to trigger deeply personal memories.

The next day, when I looked at what I had captured, it was obvious that the photograph - and the room that had given rise to it - should be known as The memory room. Around this time, the exhibition at The Curious Rabbit was also locked in, and with that in mind, I decided to harness my new photograph to a ‘promo’ that would not only announce the project, but also say something of my relationship with the night. Perhaps it also says something of yours?

The memory room - as in, the space - eventually gave rise to a second photograph within the body of work - Papillons - which sits in the same cluster as its predecessor, at the centre of the frieze. Inevitably, this question of ‘proximity’ became a key

The wheel, 2017, 36 x 54 cm

NOCTURNE (noun) Music: a short composition of a romantic nature, typically for piano Art: a picture of a night scene Origin: mid 19th century, French from Latin nocturnus ‘of the night’ What hath night to do with sleep?

- John Milton, Paradise Lost Night does not show things, it suggests them. It disturbs and surprises us with its strangeness. It liberates forces within us which are dominated by our reason during the daytime.

- Brassai By night the skyscraper looms in the smoke and the stars and has a soul.

- Carl Sandburg The sky grew darker, painted blue on blue, one stroke at a time, into deeper and deeper shades of night.

- Haruki Murakami, Dance, Dance, Dance

The night stared me in the face, amorphous, blind, infinite, without frontiers.

- Stanisław Lem, Solaris The nearer the dawn the darker the night.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow For death is the meaning of night; The eternal shadow into which all lives must fall, all hopes expire.

- Michael Cox, The Meaning of Night

NOCTURNE PHOTOGRAPHY

The ocean above, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

HH, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Cul de sac, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Four black bears, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Beckett moment, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

La lune, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Surrender, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Pink, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Requiem, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Papillons, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

The memory room, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Faรงade, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Drive-by, 2017, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Cosmology, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Still life, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Transience, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Hockey, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

Interior, 2019, Archival pigment print, 36 x 24 cm, $275

The wheel, 2017, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Le thÊâtre de la vie, 2020, Archival pigment print, 36 x 54 cm, $400

Joel Markham ...is a practicing and exhibiting photographer 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 for a number of years it has been complemented by his work as a sessional lecturer for Charles Sturt University’s School of Communication and Creative Industries.

While Nocturne is Joel’s first exhibition at The Curious Rabbit, his previous bodies of work include Heaven and Earth (2019), Time and Place (2017), The Makers (2016) and The Quest (2014). In terms of qualifications, Joel holds a Master of Arts Practice in Photomedia, a BA in Graphic Design with Class 1 Honours and a Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary), all from CSU.

Perspective It is ultimately Joel’s creative work - beyond the academic that 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.

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 HOLCOMBE Summer 2021

THANK YOU... to Vickie Burkinshaw of The Curious Rabbit for hosting the exhibition; to Timothy Crutchett of CSU for the beautiful prints; to Wagga Picture Frames for framing said prints; to Jeremy Kruckel for installing the exhibition; and to Chambers Whyte Design and Print for the promotional material. I am indebted to you all!

SALES The Nocturne photography is framed and ready to enhance your personal and/or professional environment; prices are included as part of this presentation. Please direct all enquiries to Vickie Burkinshaw of The Curious Rabbit on (02) 6921 5391.

CONTACTS The Curious Rabbit P: (02) 6921 5391 E: hello@thecuriousrabbit.com.au W: thecuriousrabbit.com.au Joel Markham Photography M: 0437 487 559 E: info@joelmarkhamphotography.com.au W: joelmarkhamphotography.com.au

Heaven and Earth portrait of JM by Tayla Martin

This project was made possible through a RAF Relief Grant provided by Regional Arts NSW through the Regional Arts Fund Recovery Boost Program, an Australian Government initiative supporting the arts in regional, remote and very remote Australia.

Congratulations, Joel another beautiful exhibition!

You are a shining star in our dark, nocturnal world!

- Robyn Thurston, WW