|
| Banned David Harradine Stripp 28 January - 14 February 1998 Melbourne |
||
 David Harradine, Jesus
|
The image of a
rock star is rarely cut and dry. It should not be seen
purely in black and white, rather it should be viewed as
a vivid kaleidoscope of vibrant beams of light, piercing
deep voids of darkness, and negotiating myriad layers of
intermediate grey. Much goes on behind the scenes with
these famous and infamous celebrities, their images
fabricated from styles and forms as original as they are
typical. A Mohawk may be nothing entirely new, but the
imposing image of a svelte and athletic bald black woman
standing in front of a pirouetting semi-circle of razor
sharp spotlights is. David Harradine has been photographing musical acts for Melbourne street press magazines over several years. His recent exhibition at Stripp gallery displays a selection of these photographs, which capture the essence of the rock star's persona in an intriguing visual essay of black and white photographs. The immediacy of Harradine's work snaps into focus quickly. The twenty three photographs survey broad representations of the complex make-up of rock stars. Yet looking at the photographs one can't help question the authenticity of their subjects. Are the pictures real documents of real people? Or are they merely deceptive projections of counterfeit emotion? Hole's Courtney Love is no doubt haunted by the ghosts of past tragedies. Through Harradine's lens she is seen capturing a moment of sad lucidity, her hollow, dark eyes lost somewhere between the realms of sanity and insanity. If Love has discovered a brief moment of clarity then the Prodigy's Keith Flint clearly resides on the far side of crazy. Focusing heavily on 'the person' as opposed to the stage within which the person is set, Harradine's images pump up the presence and ego of the star. The background is completely insignificant. It is the star who occupies the bulk of visual space, commanding the centre of attention as though their life depended on it. Bustling with vitality and radiating with verve, these people with precariously finite career life spans must constantly perform the extraordinary to satisfy their fickle fans and prolong their careers. From Rollins' intimidating physical presence to Kravitzs' frenetic head thrashing and all-over glow, from Bjork's flirtatious sexuality to Cave's impassioned expression of the magic and loss of the ultimate cathartic experience, the rock star will forever live and die by his or her magnetic energy force. The life that burns twice as bright burns half as long. For all its addictive energy and wild appeal, rock music is ultimately a novel form of entertainment that over time fades from the audiences consciousness in much the same way as the people who make the music gradually disappear from the spotlight. Photographs, on the other hand, distil frozen instants, capturing moments in their truth and entirety. David Harradine's wonderful photographs of rock stars performing live isolate those moments when the stars take centre stage and suspends those splendid moments in time forever. Finn Trembath © The artist and |
|
David Harradine, |
||
David Harradine, |
||
