Maria Griffin, Place, installation view, 1997

I am imagining a subject who looks at a photograph not because she is consciously or unconsciously seeking resolution or quiescence, and not seeking in vain a proof of her own coherence. This is a subject who welcomes the conditions in "the third area", conditions that are ambiguous, self-contradictory, approximate.

Jeanne Randolph
"Technology as Metaphor"
Psychoanalysis and Synchronised
Swimming: and Other Writings on Art

The photographs in this exhibition document a concern for responding to specific sites, the arranging of objects (kitsch and "treasures"). They capture places where Maria Griffin has exhibited her work. This show situates the artist squarely with her current artistic practice.

In these works - and within the gallery- art and domestic spaces converge. Things fit into place/things look out of place; disparity is accommodated. Homely clutter raises anxiety, empty space provides solace. One might play the game of, "what story does this or that picture tell?", or find enjoyment in these uncomfortable, humorous and oddly endearing objects and their abodes.

A framed print of a painting of ships rests on a pelment. The picture does not hang, but leans casually against the wall. Its bright hues and shiny gold frame are spotlighted by the flash of a camera. When it is taken down to be dusted off, along with other ornaments perhaps, it can be replaced without undue worry. It doesn't have to be hung straight, and no nail had to be banged into the wall which might be regretted later. In this and other works Maria Griffin allegorises, affectionately mimics, artistic and homemaker concerns.

Andrew Fitzpatrick
Melbourne

© The artist, writer and
Courtesy of the First Floor Gallery

Maria Griffin, Place, installation view, 1997