Pat Brassington

Pat Brassington
Australian, born 1942

Akimbo 1996
inkjet print; edition of 5
Geelong Gallery
Geelong print prize, 1997
Courtesy of the artist

Pat Brassington is one of Australia’s most respected photomedia artists, and is known for closely cropped and highly observant photographs that imbue the human figure with surreal and uncanny qualities. Brassington’s images spark our imagination with their dream-like sensibility and, in the case of Akimbo, the sometimes unsettling juxtapositions they exploit.

Here, an unidentified young girl holds out the skirt of her white dress as she turns from side to side. The lustre and movement of the material is digitally enhanced, a focal point created where the garment is incised with a vertical crimson slash. The subject’s playful innocence is brought into question by this visceral and seemingly violent incursion.