ANNE ZAHALKA Feature Interview in Art Guide

July 19, 2023

Anne Zahalka was the featured artist in an interview by Sally Gearon for Art Guide which covers her practice and major survey exhibition ‘ZAHALKAWORLD’ at the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh).

Centred around the artist’s archive, the exhibition brings together key bodies of work that span Zahalka’s practice presented alongside collected treasures from her archive that inform and inspire her. Encompassing material that is both personal and professional, intellectual and physical, these archival components have been incorporated into a re-creation of her house-studio within the gallery space. Imaginative, immersive and playful, the exhibition invites audiences into the artist’s working life and her creative process to explore the illusionary worlds for which she is renowned. Accompanying the exhibition will be a major publication proudly supported by the Gordon Darling Foundation.

In the interview, the artist says: “My whole approach and practice has changed over time, but a lot of the themes have remained the same. Questions to do with identity, sense of place, belonging, loss, and reflecting on time. I’ve found those themes recurring. And I’m still drawn to reworking early imagery from painting, particularly colonial painting, and their way of seeing the landscape in order to rewrite these narratives.”

Read the full interview here.

Image caption: Anne Zahalka, ‘The Sunbather #1′ from the series ‘Bondi: playground of the Pacific’, 1989, chromogenic print, 49 x 49cm