
Fiona Clark, Pan Pacific Womens' Body Building Championship posing, Auckland 1981. Courtesy the artist and Michael Lett.
Photo Credit
Fiona Clark, Pan Pacific Womens' Body Building Championship posing, Auckland 1981. Courtesy the artist and Michael Lett.
Photo Credit
Taranaki artist Fiona Clark is a leading figure of New Zealand photography. Owing much to a social documentary tradition, Clark is known for her intimate, arresting photographs that explore issues around the representation of marginalised and under-represented communities.
The title, Raw Material, hints at untreated or unedited material, and makes reference to the exhibition’s focus on a careful selection of materials from Clark’s extensive archive. The exhibition draws together various bodies of work, including films and documentation of Clark’s female personae produced by the artist as a student in the Sculpture Department of Elam School of Fine Arts. It includes photographs from Clark’s bodybuilding series, first exhibited at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1981. This period, from 1972 into the early ‘80s, was foundational for Clark’s artistic practice, and transformed her earlier reputation – up to that point, she had been known principally as a dancer.
The selected works and archival material are united by Clark’s interest in performance and the non-verbal language of the body (placement, posture, gesture). The concept and organisation of the exhibition itself functions as a non-linear timeline or a network of relations, making reference to the importance and use of the archive as a way to discuss different histories. Interwoven with personal commentary and texts, Raw Material offers a side to this important artist that normally remains unseen.
Taranaki artist Fiona Clark is a leading figure of New Zealand photography. Owing much to a social documentary tradition, Clark is known for her intimate, arresting photographs that explore issues around the representation of marginalised and under-represented communities.
The title, Raw Material, hints at untreated or unedited material, and makes reference to the exhibition’s focus on a careful selection of materials from Clark’s extensive archive. The exhibition draws together various bodies of work, including films and documentation of Clark’s female personae produced by the artist as a student in the Sculpture Department of Elam School of Fine Arts. It includes photographs from Clark’s bodybuilding series, first exhibited at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in 1981. This period, from 1972 into the early ‘80s, was foundational for Clark’s artistic practice, and transformed her earlier reputation – up to that point, she had been known principally as a dancer.
The selected works and archival material are united by Clark’s interest in performance and the non-verbal language of the body (placement, posture, gesture). The concept and organisation of the exhibition itself functions as a non-linear timeline or a network of relations, making reference to the importance and use of the archive as a way to discuss different histories. Interwoven with personal commentary and texts, Raw Material offers a side to this important artist that normally remains unseen.