CHERINE FAHD / INTERVIEW FOR DAS PLATFORMS

Cherine Fahd talks to Nick Garner about her current show Camouflage. Several works from the series were recently included in the pictorial Masked Affect by Daniel Mudie Cunningham in Das Superpaper Issue 29, Irrational Agents: Gender, Economics and Affect, guest-edited by Alys Moody.

To watch the video interview click here.

Cherine Fahd’s Camouflage series of photographic self images runs counter to trend in this age of narcissism when the cult of the ‘selfie’ is rampant and its forms of digitally generated self portrait, typically taken with a handheld smartphone, are destined for upload and maximum dissemination via social media networks.

In a game of disguise, of ‘now you see me - now you don’t’ in her recent Camouflage works, Cherine Fahd seeks to conceal as much as she reveals of the self in a continuation of her quest since 2006 to test ideas of disclosure in portraiture.

Cherine Fahd subverts the convention of photo portraiture where the face and body are the focus. In Camouflage they are mostly hidden; concealed behind geometric planes of intense solid colours which allude to the style and visual language of painting and hard edge abstraction. The coloured expanses are interrupted with only the minimal protrusion of a part.

ABDUL ABDULLAH / THE SOCIAL

Video interview courtesy of Das Platforms

Last week we featured one of Liam Benson's new photographs, Santa_2013, in which the artwork is currently exhibiting at the Campbelltown Arts Centre, as part of The Social exhibition.

The Social examines the relationship between contemporary art practice, social engagement and popular culture through the mediums of performance, narrative, photomedia and video.

Also exhibiting in the show is Perth-based artist, Abdul Abdullah, in which the artist often explores the notions of cultural identity and ethnic boundaries within his works. In the series 'Home', Abdullah creates installations throughout different Australian environments, imposing on the natural surroundings with material items - such as a white flag with the text 'HOME', referencing the notions of colonisation.

Featuring three photographic works, each image represents the idea of a self-sustaining system, such as a home, whilst also bringing to the fore the element of dependance these entities experience from the influence of external factors.

To learn more about the series 'Home', watch the video above.

KEN + JULIA YONETANI / VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH DAS PLATFORMS

In the lead up to their exhibition Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nuclear Nations, which opens at Artereal Gallery on 3 October, Das Platforms recently interviewed Ken + Julia Yonetani aboutt their current exhibition What The Birds Knew which runs until 3 November 2012 at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney.

In this interview the artists discuss social and cultural education, the ‘green ant dreaming’ from the same region as the infamous Nabarlek Uranium mine in Australia’s Northern Territory, changing attitudes to nuclear power and the recent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Join us for the exhibition opening of Crystal Palace: The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nuclear Nations on Thursday 4 October from 6-8pm.