Neighbourhood Tales 2022
Neighbourhood Tales is an exhibition of photographs produced in Maroondah and surrounding suburbs between 2020 and 2022 by Selina Ou in collaboration with her two sons who appear in each of the images, sometimes together, sometimes alone.
In this beautiful video by mattrichards.tv, Ou explains how this project was conceived in the thick of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Ou, as an artist and mother – like all Australian parents of young children – was thrust into lockdown and subjected to public health measures that could hardly have been imagined...
Ou, an Australian artist of Malaysian Chinese descent, describes these artworks as “narrative landscape photographs”, meaning that she has invited her children to pose as figures within colour documentary images of local landscapes to tell stories about their shared experience of suburban life. Each image (or tale) is carefully staged and subtly lit, bringing a theatrical scenography to these familiar environments.
As those of us who are old enough to remember know, this project was conceived in the thick of the Covid-19 Pandemic. Ou, as an artist and mother - like all Australian parents of young children - was thrust into lockdown and subjected to public health measures that could hardly have been imagined: home schooling, severely limited physical interaction beyond the family unit, and heavily restricted outdoor activity. The artist’s more usual subjects - documentary portraits of people at work and play - were suddenly off limits.
Neighbourhood Tales is Ou’s creative solution to remaining productive through this unusual and challenging time. The result is a compelling series of images that is at once intensely personal and universally relatable. Concealing her children’s facial identity is on the on hand a tender, protective move, and on the other it opens up these figures as surfaces on which we can project memories and experiences of childhood, whether they be our own or those of our children.
Video by mattrichards.tv 🙌
Curator: Dr Gareth Syvret 🙌
Exhibition printing and installation: @decentlyexposed 🙌
Exhibition closes 17 September
Visit ArtSpace at Realm
Ringwood Town Square (opposite Ringwood Station)
Ground floor 179 Maroondah Highway
Ringwood VIC
03 9298 4553
Gallery hours
Monday to Friday 9am-8pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm
@sophiegannongallery
@artsinmaroondah
@maroondahcitycouncil
@decentlyexposed
@garethsyvret
#art #photography #maroondah #neighbourhoodtales