WHEN : 21st September – 20th October
WHERE : Queensland Centre of Photography
My work investigates the paradoxical desire for freedom and belonging. I examine empty interiors, and the boundlessness of one’s surroundings. The inverse nature of the interior and exterior parallels the intersection of one’s need to be and to belong. It’s as if this contradiction is perpetually reinforced as one experiences the limitlessness of environments, from within the tiny enclosure of oneself.
The journey to reconcile one’s conflicting desires for freedom and belonging is illustrated in Jury Norstein’s animation Hedgehog in the Fog. The hedgehog is walking to meet his friend the bear, with whom he spends the evenings by a fire of juniper twigs, drinking tea and counting the stars. But this time on his way to visit the bear, the hedgehog sees a white horse standing in a forest, surrounded by a sea of fog. Drawn by the beauty of the white horse, the young hedgehog goes toward the forest and enters the fog. Once in the fog, the hedgehog encounters an entire spectrum of experiences, that almost end in his death. But he is saved by an unknown force, and finally reaches his friend the bear in time for their nightly ritual. Reunited, and his outer world restored to normal, the hedgehog’s thoughts however, return to the white horse.
For more information about Svetlana Bailey, please visit her website
