RAW: Every Day Faces – Every Day Places – Naomi Clarke – Adelaide Railway Station
Naomi Clarke’s elongated canvasses that stretch across the great arrivals hall at the railway station are works of great interest. Captured on them are photographed faces, sometimes portraits, of people of all walks and ages, some we know, most of whom are otherwise just faces in the crowd. Their looks are sometimes intriguing, other times hugely engaging such as the young boy in a joyous moment.
Using the railway station hall as the place to display them is most apt, for there below these canvasses is the same eclectic mix of individuals milling around and going about their days, also enjoying moments of delight and introspection.
Works on this scale can run the risk of overdoing it or getting lost above the masses. Clarke has done well to get the balance right and achieve her goal as set out in the exhibition’s title. The pity is that they could not be hung closer to the southern stairs where the impact of them vis a vis the people below would have been greater. It seems some promotion of the railways people took precedence (– can you believe it).
Kryztoff Rating – 4K
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about 14 years ago
I was at the opening of the exhibition and had the chance to see (and photograph) some of the people whose faces adorn the banners while they were looking at the images of themselves. It struck me that while they may be everyday people, what the photographs did was show how big a person it is that lives inside that everyday body.
Naomi has done a fantastic job of liberating the hugeness that lives inside of people and then to splash it across an everyday place.
At first I thought it is a pity that they were down in the “quiet” part of the station, but then it occurred to me that that is where they need to be. Anyone even considering stopping to look in the main traffic area would be mown down by the surges. The far end gives people a chance to stop and look, even to sit and look. That area is also where the old Lost Property office used to be, so it is fitting that the energy, expressions and joy Naomi has “found” should find a home nearby.