Title

Leisureland Photographs by Anne Zahalka

Venues

UTS Gallery (24 June 2003 – 18 July 2003)

Grafton Regional Gallery (27 August 2003 – 5 October 2003)

Date

(2003)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (NSW). Photographs

Documentation

catalogue

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

Over the last four years, photographer Anne Zahalka has been documenting Australia's bizarre and enchanting leisure activities. The series began with portraits of urban life, such as Sydney's Cole Classic, punters at the pokies and climbers ascending the heights of the Harbour Bridge.

Zahalka’s new exhibition, Leisureland Regional , takes us beyond the metropolis to observe the rituals of modern leisure in its many weird and wonderful forms. From 24 June - 18 July, UTS Gallery presents 21 photographs from the series. These images, fascinating in their hyper-realism, present an array of festivals, events and attractions around regional NSW and the Gold Coast.

As viewers we are placed amongst the crowd at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, as a spectator at Bathurst's Mount Panorama race track and at the Big Brother house at Dreamworld on eviction night. The photographs transport us to a world coated in colour, gloss and dazzling lights.  In Crowning Ceremony, Grafton Jacaranda Festival , 2000 we are immersed in the audience, hypnotized by the spectacle.  The scene recalls olden day acts of kings and queens at the thrown, as history is re-enacted and remembered.

Zahalka's images reflect on the importance and value attached to places of leisure in a non-judgemental way. The environments are rendered as faithfully as possible, without manipulating the image, encouraging the viewer to recognise themselves within the spaces with a certain familiarity and humour.

The collection of leisurescapes offers a different vantage point from which to think about the complex significance of leisure in Australian life. By bringing regional activities to the fore, the exhibition works to unsettle the egalitarian assumption that the same leisure choices are freely available to all Australians.

Leisureland Regional is a Grafton Regional Gallery touring exhibition. The exhibition will be launched in Sydney to coincide with the sixth biannual Australian and New Zealand Association for Leisure Studies (ANZALS) conference, which will be held at UTS from 10 to 12 July.  For more information on the ANZALS conference see: www.staff.vu.edu.au/anzals

Leisureland Regional will travel to Grafton Regional Gallery opening 27 August - 5 October. It will tour regional galleries in NSW and Queensland during 2004 and early 2005.  A full-colour catalogue will accompany the exhibition with essay by Simone Fullagar, School of Community Health, Charles Sturt University, Albury. [gallery media]