Mind the Gap is a somewhat dark and politically charged meditation on the gap between Australian cultures. It is not asking us to close the gap, to homogenise or assimilate; rather it asks us to acknowledge the gap, nurture the gap, celebrate the diversity rather than deny its existence. It encourages us to question and hold ourselves accountable for our actions as global citizens. The work aims to highlight colonial mannerisms and differences between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal ways of understanding and valuing land.

Mind the Gap encourages us to imagine a future with deeper reconciliation and stronger acknowledgment of our true history rather than having our heads in the sand.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

KRISTIAN LAEMMLE-RUFF

Kristian Laemmle-Ruff is a photographic artist based in Melbourne, Australia.

His work focuses on social, cultural and environmental challenges in an increasingly fragile and globalised world. Having recently expanded his practice to include sound and installation, Kristian blends documentary rawness with conceptual uses of symbolism and colour.

“Kristian Laemmle-Ruff is a photographer with a visually acute and potent sense of image-making. His Pine Gap has a surprising and unexpected beauty which, in its own term, belies it political purpose.” – Chris Saines CNZM

Naomi Cass, director of the Centre for Contemporary Photography, found his series Littoral to be a “beautiful yet terrible” expression of humanity’s effect on our landscape.

In 2014 he published his first photo-book In the Folds of Hills in which Mr Malcolm Fraser wrote that this book “will come to have historic significance because it captures aspects of Australian rural life, which in many parts of this country are fast disappearing.” The book was a finalist in the Australian Photobook of the Year Awards 2014.

Kristian regularly engages in collaborations with other artists (Luke Cornish, Ilka White) and has completed photo-work for galleries such as Metro Gallery, Liverpool Street Gallery and Buku Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Arnhem Land as well as NGO’s in Japan. He also undertakes architectural, studio and portrait-based commissions.

Having exhibited throughout Australia as
well as overseas, Kristian’s works are part
of permanent collections including the Queensland Centre for Photography and
the State Library of Victoria.

Kristian lives and works at Merring Studio in the thriving arts-hub of Northcote in Melbourne. Here he is also part of the creative team.

https://www.kristianlaemmleruff.com/

OPENING

6pm, Friday 16th September

EXHIBITION

9 September - 1 October 2016