ACTS I-VII, a group show by Oculi Collective, is now open at Benalla Art Gallery, part of the Photo 2022 International Festival of Photography. It’s been a huge amount of work to conceptualise, produce and project manage this exhibition, but I’m super proud of what we’ve been able to achieve together. Big thanks to the project team and curator Natasha Christia for your support, work and laughs over the past year — we did it!

29th Apr – 17th Jul 2022

*Sean Davey & Aishah Kenton (KENTON / DAVEY)*

ACTS I-VII

Oculi presents ACTS I-VII, a visual meditation on seven modes of being. Reformulating the Seven Year Life Stages, a concept of human development introduced by philosopher Rudolph Steiner in 1907, this exhibition explores seven universal experiences that lie at the heart of our existence: love and fear, trauma and grief, freedom and oppression, control and uncertainty, belonging and exclusion, science and spirit, life and death.

Featuring new and existing work from its members — some unseen, some revisited and some in collaboration with the Benalla community — ACTS I-VII marks Oculi’s third decade as a photography collective. The presented projects, interwoven with reflections from the artists about their work and process, reveal a group considering their roles, responsibilities, archives and desires amidst two years of social and environmental upheaval.

ACTS I-VII is intended as a prompt for contemplation and a reminder of what connects us. With photographs spilling from the gallery walls out into the neighbouring gardens, we’re asked to consider the world and what it means to be an individual who is part of a collective, community or environment? How does it feel to make, share, treasure and consume images, or to be photographed? Do the old rules still apply, or has the moment to rethink arrived?

Acknowledgements

Oculi is a collective of 18 fine-art and documentary photographers. Since its inception in 2000, Oculi has been the leading influence in photographic documentary practice in Australia, offering a visual narrative of contemporary life in the region and beyond.

www.oculi.com.au

ACTS I-VII is curated by Oculi members Aishah Kenton, Abigail Varney, Alana Holmberg, Tajette O’Halloran, and Rachel Mounsey in conversation with Natasha Christia. It was produced and project managed by Alana Holmberg.

Acts I-VII is an official exhibition of PHOTO 2022 International Festival of Photography, a major biennial of new photography and ideas taking place from 29 April to 22 May in Melbourne and regional Victoria. Responding to the theme ‘Being Human’, PHOTO 2022 explores the role photography plays in understanding the contemporary human condition. PHOTO 2022 is produced by Photo Australia in collaboration with cultural institutions, museums and galleries, and education, industry and government partners.

www.photo.org.au

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. This project was made possible by the Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund, which supports the arts in regional and remote Australia.

Four Oculi photographers James Bugg, Abigail Varney, Rachel Mounsey and myself were recently commissioned by the Victorian Parliament to produce series of photographs based on the theme of coming together' in regional Victoria. The commission took place in conjunction with the Photo 2022 International Festival of Photography and have now been displayed on the steps of Parliament. Images from my the Victorian chapter of my series Idle Hours were displayed for the first time.

“After two years of social restrictions, the act of coming together has never felt more vital for Victorians. As the state emerged from the second year of lockdowns, four Victorian photographers set out to make a series that explored the idea of gathering in regional areas. Travelling from the Victorian high country to far east Gippsland and the Murray River, each photographer considered the different locations, motivations and events that bring people together. The result is a four-part series called Gather, commissioned as part of the Photo 2022 International Festival of Photography.”

-Read more on The Guardian