In the Shape of a Body

In her photographic and installation practice Australian artist Anne Ferran deals with history, and women's place within it. Her exhibition In the Shape of a Body at The Physics Room represents a series of work developed while she was artist-in-residence in a house managed by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. Inspired by the discovery of a bedroom where a woman had died a few years before, the contents of which remained more or less undisturbed, Ferran has used the photogram process to create ghostly and compelling images of abandoned belongings. Blouses, slips, nightdresses, anything flimsy enough to allow light to pass through it, have been laid on photgraphic paper and exposed to light for a few seconds. The resulting images show the garments transfigured by light into something part-way between a solid object and a diaphanous veil.

Reviews, Essays & Articles
Spectral pasts
The Press, 1999 Oct. 27, p. 33
Wright, Nik.

Examining women's role in history
Christchurch Star, 1999 Oct. 13, p. B6