Rozalind Drummond Explained

Rozalind Drummond (born 1956) is a photographic artist and an early exponent of postmodernism in Australia.[1]

Education

Drummond trained initially at Prahran College 1982-84, an institution which Australian Centre for Photography director Deborah Ely recognised in 1999 as producing "some of the country's most acclaimed practitioners" including Drummond amongst them, beside "Bill Henson, Carol Jerrems, Steve Lojewski, Janina Green and Christopher Koller".[2] From 1985–86 she undertook a Post Graduate Diploma in Fine Art at the School of Art in the Victorian College of the Arts where Bill Henson, as noted by Max Dupain,[3] was her supervisor.

In 1997 she was awarded a Samstag Scholarship of A$30,000, plus airfares and fees, for a year of overseas study during which she took an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, London.[4] Co-recipients were Zhong Chen, Lyndal Jefferies, Steven Holland, and Julie Gough.[5] Later in Australia she completed a Master of Arts (Art in Public Space), RMIT University, Melbourne in 2017. Since then she has exhibited nationally and internationally and her work is in major public collections.

From 1986-88 Drummond was Assistant Director at George Paton Gallery, University of Melbourne,[6] and she has held academic positions as Lecturer in Photography, Victorian College of the Arts, School of Art, Melbourne 1987-89, Lecturer in Photography, School of Art and Design, Monash University, Caulfield Campus 1990-91 and Lecturer in Photography, School of Arts and Education, Deakin University, Burwood Campus until 2014.

Practice

Drummond first showed solo in 1985 at George Paton Gallery (where she was to become assistant director the following year).[7]

Less than ten years into her career, in 1993, Drummond and painter Geoff Lowe were invited by curator Juliana Engberg to produce an exhibition involving collaboration with Vietnamese artists supported by Asialink's Australian art to Asia project and hosted by the Hanoi School of Art,[8] the nation's first contemporary art contact with Vietnam.[9] Choosing to show typical examples of their Australian contemporary art practice, Drummond took long contact proofs, titled Voyeur and excepted from monochrome Super 8 footage which had been made between 1960–65, which could be unrolled and pinned to the gallery wall either horizontally or vertically, allowing viewers' own interpretation of narrative, and reported that some of the Vietnamese artists were surprised she chose not to frame her photographs.

The exhibition was shown in Australia as Vietnam at the Waverley City Gallery from 25 February to 28 March 1993,[10] in which Zara Stanhope points to "Drummond's creative acts of framing and filming," and "unsettling juxtaposition of unfamiliar, geographically distant images" which "disrupt the convention of the invisible journalistic photographer [and] Western modes of narrative and brings about reconsideration of viewing responsibilities." Drummond also included a series of untitled black-and-white photos extracted from an unfinished video she made in Vietnam in which scenes in motion were rendered blurred and out of focus. A single framed passport photo facing a group of like images at opposite ends of a long narrow space that for Stanhope signify "the individual made poweriess before structures of the mass or of nation. The passport proves the existence of the refugee and reminds us that those who cross frontiers are, like criminals, the objects ol surveillance."[11]

Drummond's Peeping Tom (named from Michael Powell’s film) was shown at Monash University Gallery, November 1995 to February 1996. Beside found photographs it included three video screens; one showing Powell's 1960 movie; another voyeuristically tracking a woman as she weaves through museum displays; and a third with a live feed of the exhibition space in which the viewer can see themselves recorded. The sum of these parts places the audience in the role of victim and aggressor simultaneously. It is a frequently referenced work,[12] early on by artist and writer Perry Fowler;

"Drummond has created an ‘artificial’, cryptically narrated, masculinist subjectivity. Like a psychoanalyst ‘reading’ a patient or a detective investigating a mystery, the viewer deciphers the story through ‘clues’ provided at random.The story reveals an arguably pathological perception of the feminine. Drummond’s women are shallow, monochrome beauties, naively modeling for long-forgotten amateurs. Manipulated and enlarged, they become images of a reconstituted femininity; a postmodern perception of a post-war sexuality."[13]

Reception

Reviewers recognised an allusive and elliptical gaze in Drummond's oeuvre from early on in her career, with Max Dupain in 1986 describing as "intensely introverted" her imagery in The Melbourne Stage: Photographs by four post-graduates at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney;

"Rozalind Drummond shows 16 extremely beautiful colour pictures. As a group they are intensely poetic and charged with a very personal sense of mystery and sometimes unrelenting despair. Subdued yet passionate, delicate and sombre, thought-provoking and slightly awesome, they could all be shifting shadows of the same person. I return to these pictures again and again. In ordinary terminology they have depth. It is heartening to know that photography can thus rise so superior to actuality."[14]
Drummond's embrace of postmodernist traits prompted mixed reviews. Beatrice Faust slighted her contributions to the National Gallery of Victoria's 1988 Excursions into the Postmodern: Five Melbourne Photographers; New Acquisitions, writing that she had failed to make "a coherent body of work," and that beside John Gollings' studies "powerful melding of architectural, pornographic and optical images," hers were "sketchy and trivial."[15] Canberra Times critic Helen Musa by contrast understood in 1992 that Drummond "uses photography to exploit the distance between the real and the fictional."[16]

Stuart Koop ambiguously qualified such a response in comparing separate 1991 exhibitions by Drummond (Scopic Territories at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art) and Wolfgang Sievers' industrial photographs (at National Gallery of Victoria) to identify her...

"...apparently total abdication of authorial responsibility in [. . . ] a dependence on everything extrinsic to the photograph which has come to characterise the critical import of postmodern photography as some kind of institutional critique; this in contrast to the intrinsic formalism of modern photography," noting "[Sievers'] (perhaps naive) confrontation of power, capital, social control, or whatever, in the construction of aesthetic forms, [while Drummond], in retreat. hopes rather to spy a random trace of their omnipresence, poking the camera into a city's spaces for a glimpse of puissance. The difference is a capitulation of sorts before the unrelenting advance of "capital" manifest in theories such as Debord's."[17]
Greg Neville in The Age however dismissed Scopic Territories as "a cold and overstated exercise. In that at least it is a good example of the current, Post-Modern Academy style," its catalogue as "impenetrable" and the accompanying video as "interminable,"[18] and dismissed a reshowing of the images in Reflex at the Centre for Contemporary Photography, curated by Koop, as "blurry night shots of the city, such as one expects (but does not encourage) in undergraduate students."[19]

Rebecca Lancashire more positive in reviewing Location, at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art in 1992, notes "Rozalind Drummond's black and white Melbourne scenes, deliberately out of focus: images of flux and uncertainty," and Zara Stanhope addressing Reflex as an exhibition of ironically "bad" photography, in which Drummond's work accompanied that of Susan Fereday, Graeme Hare, Les Walking and David Stephenson, described hers as "dynamic images;"

"Abstracting the real, the works in Reflex restage the classical struggle between the expressive and the descriptive, the subjectivity of the gaze and the indexical qualities of photographic reproduction. The electric neon lighls illuminating the form of Western and Eastern cities appear out of the night in Rozalind Drummond's...They provide the viewer with only a transitory glimpse, insufficient to discern the figure in the darkness, or to culturally position oneself."[20]

Drummond has applied a feminist visual critique to gender.[21] Reacting to her 1996 exhibition Bunny Rug reprising American pinup photographer Bunny Yeager's self-portraits reviewer Bruce James of the Sydney Morning Herald finds himself "unpersuaded but provoked."[22] In a 1997 issue of ArtAsiaPacific,[23] Natalie King described the installation Peeping Tom (1995) by Drummond as, “A group of large format, toned photographs … haphazardly pinned to the gallery walls like an archive,” suggesting not an institution but the “archive” as a collection of related things (whether in subject or form),[24] inviting, as Freda Freiberg remarked, "a surreptitious peep, if not a studied gaze, at the bodies and business of others..." and to "turn our gaze back on the professional peepers, to play their game. We are asked to play the sleuth." However, reviewing more conventional imagery in Perfect for Every Occasion at Heide Museum of Modern Art in 2007, critic Robert Nelson dismissed as "feeble happy snaps," her portraits of youths; "Even the scene where one girl touches another, which is given the dramatic title Now Everyone Knows, seems unmomentous."[25]

Penny Webb writing on Durmmond's 2007 collaborative show with Stuart Bailey, Carpetweed, at Victoria Park Gallery, Abbotsford, discerns a more effective "exchange ... established between these two bodies of work - six photographs pinned around the space; six constructions on the floor: a meeting of minds, you might say. Rozalind Drummond has cast a dispassionate eye on piles of materials and objects, discarded or yet to be claimed, in the process of some sort of office move or domestic upheaval."[26]

Selected exhibitions

Drummond's exhibitions include:

Solo

Group

Curator

Collections

References

  1. Book: Williams, Donald. Art now: contemporary art post-1970. Book two.. 1996. McGraw-Hill. 978-0-07-470277-2. New York. English. 1231689147.
  2. Ely. Deborah. 1999. The Australian centre for photography. History of Photography. English. 23. 2. 118–122. 10.1080/03087298.1999.10443810. 0308-7298. 5722249596.
  3. News: Dupain. Max. 17 February 1986. Thoughtful postgraduate photographs. 17. The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
  4. News: 1 November 1996. Arts diary. 4. The Age [Melbourne, Australia].
  5. News: Lloyd. Tim. 1 November 1996. Chen brushes up art scholarship. 13. The Advertiser [Adelaide, South Australia, Australia].
  6. Book: Vivian. Helen. When you think about art--: the Ewing and George Paton Galleries, 1971-2008. George Paton Gallery. Ewing Gallery. 2008. Macmillan Art Pub.. 978-1-921394-02-7. Melbourne, Vic.. English. 271749145.
  7. Book: Vivian. Helen. When you think about art--: the Ewing and George Paton Galleries, 1971-2008. George Paton Gallery. Ewing Gallery. 2008. Macmillan Art Pub.. 978-1-921394-02-7. Melbourne, Vic.. English. 271749145.
  8. News: Broinowski. Alison. 17 August 1994. A slow drift towards Asia. 24. The Sydney Morning Herald.
  9. Book: McCulloch. Alan. The new McCulloch's encyclopedia of Australian art. McCulloch. Susan. McCulloch Childs. Emily. 2006. 978-0-522-85317-9. 56. English. 80568976.
  10. News: Lancashire. Rebecca. 4 January 1993. Australian-Vietnamese art has arrived - by pedicab. 12. The Age.
  11. Stanhope. Zara. 1993. Vietnam. Art & Text. 45. 76.
  12. Book: American Bibliographical Center. Artbibliographies modern [Druckausg.] 29,2.1998. 29,2.1998.]. 1998. CLIO PR.. OXFORD. English. 1073861597.
  13. Web site: Rozalind Drummond's peeping tom. 2021-12-18. www.artdes.monash.edu.au.
  14. News: Dupain. Max. 17 February 1986. Thoughtful postgraduate photographs. 17. The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
  15. News: Faust. Beatrice. 12 October 1988. Photography. 14. The Age.
  16. News: 1992-12-20. Australian art for Vietnamese shown at Melbourne centre. Canberra Times. 2021-12-15.
  17. Koop, Stuart. Art & Text, Jan92, Issue 41, p98-99, 2p, 2 Black and White Photographs. Publisher: Foundation for International Art Criticism
  18. News: Neville. Greg. 24 October 1991. A patchy pot-pourri of artists' camera work. 14. The Age.
  19. News: Neville. Greg. 15 December 1993. Conditioned reflex, but students lively. 17. The Age.
  20. Stanhope. Zara. May 1994. Reflex. Art & Text. 48. 75.
  21. Book: Marsh, Anne. Doing Feminism Women's Art and Feminist Criticism in Australia.. 2021. Melbourne University Publishing. 978-0-522-87759-5. Melbourne. 134–6. English. 1285168275.
  22. News: James. Bruce. 2 Aug 1996. Galleries. 14. The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
  23. Natalie King, “Peeping Tom.” ArtAsiaPacific 13, Jan/Feb/Mar, 1997
  24. Masters, H., Chu, D., Tsai, S., Cohn, D. J., & Ko, H. (2016). "In Terms of Art." ArtAsiaPacific, 100, 98–109.
  25. News: Nelson. Robert. 24 March 2007. Something rotten. 19. The Age [Melbourne, Australia].
  26. "Visual Arts." Sunday Age [Melbourne, Australia], 18 Feb. 2007, p. 38.
  27. Web site: Rozalind Drummond Process Blue, Nature Trips, Corduroy, Pine Shelving - Bundoora Homestead. 2021-12-16. www.bundoorahomestead.com.
  28. Web site: Rozalind Drummond - Process Blue, Nature Trips, Corduroy, Pine Shelving - Darebin Arts . www.darebinarts.com.au . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20180408213400/http://www.darebinarts.com.au/whats-on-archive/rozalind-drummond-process-blue-nature-trips-corduroy-pine-shelving . 2018-04-08.
  29. Book: Bailey. Stuart. Black mountain. Drummond. Rozalind. University of Melbourne. Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts and Music. Margaret Lawrence Gallery. 2011. English. 858569616.
  30. Web site: West Space. 2021-12-19. westspace.org.au.
  31. Book: Drummond, Rozalind. How fine the air. 2009. Digital Harbour. Melbourne, Vic.. English. 494620520.
  32. Book: Drummond. Rozalind. Rozalind Drummond: weather everything, CCAS 27 April - 26 May 2007.. Stanhope. Zara. Canberra Contemporary Art Space. 2007. Canberra Contemporary Art Space. Braddon, A.C.T.. English. 301847378.
  33. Book: Berkowitz. Lauren. Spiderbox. Drummond. Rozalind. Canberra Contemporary Art Space. 1998. Canberra Contemporary Art Space. 978-1-875526-46-8. Braddon, A.C.T.. English. 39840057.
  34. Doherty. Claire. 1998. Parachuting postponed: Australian artists in Birmingham. Artlink. English. 18. 4. 48–50. 0727-1239. 7128713304.
  35. Book: Drummond. Rozalind. Hide and seek.. Ikon Gallery. 1997. Ikon Gallery . 978-0-907594-54-3. English. 1193510685.
  36. News: 5 November 1995. From the GODS. 7. The Age [Melbourne, Australia].
  37. News: Freiberg. Freda. 7 Feb 1996. Taking look others: Freda Freiberg plays the role of peeping Tom and ponders the questions of voyeurism raised by a new exhibition.. 21. The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).
  38. Book: Drummond. Rozalind. Project Room: Rozalind Drummond, Peeping Tom : [exhibition catalogue|last2=King|first2=Natalie|last3=Monash University|last4=Department of Visual Arts|last5=Exhibition Gallery|date=1995|publisher=Monash University Gallery|isbn=978-0-7326-0632-9|location=Clayton, Vic.|language=English|oclc=38392839].
  39. News: 5 Jul 1995. Opening. 19. The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).
  40. Book: Noonan. David. Pool. Drummond. Rozalind. Karyn Lovegrove Gallery. 1993. Karyn Lovegrove Gallery. Prahran, Vic.. English. 836760405.
  41. Book: Drummond. Rozalind. Scopic territories. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. 1991. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. 978-0-947220-10-5. Melbourne. English. 27629079.
  42. News: Neville. Greg. 24 October 1991. A patchy pot-pourri of artists' camera work. 14. The Age.
  43. Web site: Shadow Zone: Rosalind Drummond :: event at :: at Design and Art Australia Online. 2021-12-16. www.daao.org.au.
  44. Book: Drummond. Rozalind. "Faite urbaine": an exhibition. Chameleon Inc. 1988. Chameleon. Hobart. English. 220822083.
  45. News: Catalano. Gary. 22 May 1985. Art: Classical antiquity is strong in Antipodes. 14. The Age.
  46. Web site: CAVES. 2021-12-19. cavesgallery.com.
  47. Web site: 'Small Mercies' - an exhibition for bushfire victims. 2021-12-19. Helga Salwe. en-US.
  48. Web site: Art Aid Gippsland. 2021-12-19. Gippsland Art Gallery. en.
  49. Web site: The Look. 2021-12-19. National Portrait Gallery exhibition.
  50. Web site: Express Yourself. 2021-12-19. National Portrait Gallery exhibition.
  51. Web site: Tough & Tender. 2021-12-18. National Portrait Gallery exhibition.
  52. Book: Willis. Sam. Face to face: Deakin University creative artists respond to the Deakin University art collection. Deakin University Art Gallery. 2012. Deakin University. 978-0-9872954-0-8. Burwood, Vic.. English. 809156379.
  53. News: Modra. Penny. 22 July 2009. The Space Visual Arts. 14. The Age [Melbourne, Australia].
  54. News: 18 Jul 1998. Visual Arts - listings. 294. The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).
  55. News: Schwartz. Larry. 23 May 1998. Memories are made of these. 2. The Age [Melbourne, Australia].
  56. McQuire, S., Deftereos, G. (1998). Mnemosyne, Or Do Humans Dream in Negative Strips?. Australia: Centre for Contemporary Photography.
  57. Preece. R. J.. 1997. Ikon in the City Program. World Sculpture News. 3. 4. 55.
  58. News: Freiberg. Freda. 5 August 1997. Documentary tradition survives technology. 28. The Age.
  59. News: Neville. Greg. 15 December 1993. Conditioned reflex, but students lively. 17. The Age.
  60. News: 11 December 1992. Pictures without the postcard view.. 14. The Age [Melbourne, Australia].
  61. Book: Asialink. Asialink -- linking Australia and Asia for the 21st century.. Drummond. Rozalind. 1993. Asialink Centre, University of Melbourne. Carlton, Vic.. English. 221590592.
  62. Book: Ford. Sue. Desde el fin del imperio nueve fotografos australianos=From the empire's end nine australian photographers; En la linea de sombra diez fotografos espanoles=On the shadow line ten spanish photographers. Elliston. Peter. Moffatt. Tracey. Dement. Linda. Henson. Bill. Drummond. Rozalind. Hall. Adrian. Ahern. Judith. Grace. Hellen. Circulo de Bellas Artes. 1991. Madrid. Spanish. 1186958312.
  63. Book: Rrap. Julie. The naked image: the nude in recent Australian photography. Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. 1986. English. 221447497.
  64. News: 29 August 1987. Advertising. 22. The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).
  65. News: Dupain. Max. 17 February 1986. Thoughtful postgraduate photographs. 17. The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia).
  66. News: O'Sullivan. Kay. 14 August 1985. New Breed: A different perspective on the invisible art form. 22. The Age (Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).
  67. News: Backhouse. Megan. 31 May 2014. Plotlines. 14. The Age. Melbourne.
  68. News: Sumpter. Helen. 4 May 2000. Ways of Living. 129. Evening Standard.
  69. Book: Ellis. Pate. Ways of living.. McCarthy. Caroline. Drummond. Rozalind. RMIT University. Project Space. 1999. RMIT University, Project Space. Carlton, Victoria. English. 222766985.
  70. Web site: Rosalind Drummond in the Collection, NGV. National Gallery of Victoria.
  71. Web site: Rozalind Drummond, b. 1956. 2021-12-15. National Portrait Gallery people.
  72. Web site: Subtle emotion. 2021-12-18. Portrait magazine.

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