found an interview i did for a Melbourne magazine for the masters

INTERVIEW (still looking for the great journalists name)

Who what where or when inspired your passion for storytelling, for photography?

I was always a visual person. I found words difficult; I was one of the kids that found spelling a nightmare... so I turned instead to things visual. I took up photography because I thought it would be more immediate than drawing and painting, but I probably spend as much time on a photograph than most artists spend on their paintings.

Who do you count as major artistic influences -tell me about two of these artists and a major work or two?

I've spent the last 5 years doing a Master of Arts, which, in part, was about examining the work I did in the ‘90s and 2000s and putting it into an historic and theoretical context. Out of this I realised that one photographer above all others has influenced my mind set right from the beginning. Robert Mapplethorpe. It was his photographs I went to find in 1991 when I first traveled to NYC, having discovered them a couple of years earlier. I was really attracted to the beauty of his prints - they seem precious. I was also attracted to the subject matter. 

Mapplethorpe presented images that were unlike most of what I had seen before. The men in his photos were not always handsome - they were distinctive. Mapplethorpe didn't photograph personalities but was more sculptural, particularly in his later work. The photograph of Ken Moody composed like a passport photograph with his eyes closed. This is an image that made me stop and reconsider everything I did in photography. Mapplethorpe’s most important contribution was not the blurring of the line between art and porn, but that he made images of black Americans that entered the public conscience, that were different.  The men in his photographs were still, sexy, yet contemplative, thoughtful, teasing, it cut across the narratives of black Americans of the time.  I never got to meet Mapplethorpe; I’m not sure, reading his interviews, whether it would have been a good experience...

I did meet Arnold Newman several times. Newman is a portrait photographer who put people into their environments and let the background do the talking as much as the face. One of the great joys of my life was meeting Newman in his Upper Westside apartment and purchasing a print of Igor Stravinsky from him. (Google it). This is perhaps the most perfect portrait made. It says everything, in a graphic way that describes Stravinsky’s work. This print is constant source of inspiration for me, challenging me towards my own perfect statement where a single photograph says so much. The third photographer I would like to count as a major influence is Henri Cartier Bresson. He originated the idea that there is a 'decisive moment' to make a photograph, when all the elements came together to form the perfect story. Of these three it is Mapplethorpe that has influenced this show the most, for this show is about depicting 'types' that don't often get visually represented. 

Can you tell me about the installation, why the Federation Square locale?

There are 20 types of Anglo Celtic Australian (ACA) men and Chinese (Australian) men. Ten of each, which are arranged in a triangular formation, with most culturally sanctioned (that is the one that the popular culture emphasize though media, national and personal narratives at the front, behind him other types were distilled from the two culture's cinematic output. The photographs are 1.9 m tall and .8m wide. The two sets are not oppositional, but on a course to merge. Throughout time and across cultures there has been a battle going on defining what is the ideal man. Is he a physical man or an intellectual man? The two cultural perspectives I’ve chosen for this exhibition illustrate this, with the ACA masculinity being dominated by images and stereotypes of the physical and Chinese being about academic, cultural and occupational pursuits.

I've been exhibiting since 1996, first in cafes then I moved to galleries then to public spaces. I like public spaces the most. My work is very sociologically based; I’m asking questions that I want to engage the general public with. That is not to say I don't hit on issues in art theory, I do. So the more public the space the more people who see it, then there is more chance of the questions being discussed. Federation Square is the most wonderful public place to show, and I’ve had a fantastic working relationship with them in putting this project together. Sydney doesn't have an equivalent space, very few cities do. It’s a real privilege showing in there.

Do you describe these works as portraits- tell me about how you feel they are best described?

They are not so much portraits because even for the people who are playing themselves (like my father) they are acting out a 'type'. The individual is usurped by a more generalised representation, though having said that I’ve left some quirks in. for example the watch worn by the lead Chinese guy is a Tag Heuer not a Rolex. 

And the juxtaposition of different images of men- describes two images and tells me something about the placement and the juxtapositions?

In Australian Anglo Celtic masculinity (ACAM) we privilege youth, particularly men that have natural talent and work hard at perfecting it. So footballers, sportsmen, entertainers. Behind the very handsome, well built man holding his footy boots is a 59-year-old man holding an Esky, wearing Speedos. They are the same type in many ways separated by 30+ years. A similar juxtaposition happens in reverse in the Chinese set, where the privileged masculine type the 50s professional and behind him is the 20s professional eager to climb the corporate ladder. In just these four photographs we have the key finding of my research and the core issue, which makes me uncomfortable with how we (ACA) see being a man. In ACAM we know whether we've achieved 'manhood' by the time we are 26 and the rest of our lives we attempt to reform how we view ourselves against the dominate images and themes that press and media present us with.

For most of us ACA men we don't fit this ideal of the sportsman and work at defining ourselves differently (see http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-true-history-of-the-beer-belly-gang-20101203-18jvj.html it's worth the typing), I’m interested in the experiences of men from other cultural backgrounds who have to interact with this dominate issue. In the Chinese view of a man it’s about using intellect you have to achieve while being cultural and moral. What I find interesting is in my peer group most of the ACA men relate more to the Chinese model then to the ACA model. So in part this show is about giving space within Australian culture for Chinese men to perform their masculinity and give permission for men like me, and you, to cast ourselves as cultural and about mind rather then body. Which is in part why I moved to Melbourne from Sydney. 

Masculinities, fluidity, and multiplicity - these may or may not be some of the art school/theoretical terms from the recent past that may also be an influence on your conceptual approach?

The way masculinity has been conceptualised in theory is that there are many competing masculinities in any society at any time, some based on the physical some on the intellectual. But the popular culture has an amalgam that is constantly refereed to, and presented as the 'real' man, the 'proper' man, refereed to as the hegemonic masculinity. In this installation I’ve distilled back to this culturally dominate (sportsman/businessman) type, for I wish to disrupt it. One size does not fit all. One masculinity does not suit a culture. There are many competing to be seen, to be acknowledged, but struggling against the dominant type. My theoretical frame is Lucan's idea of the "given-to-be-seen" which is the images that exist in a culture by which we feel we can construct our identity.

What my work has always been about is attempting to expand what exists in the "given-to-be-seen".  I'm presenting 20 masculinities; to the public hopefully get people to question what is an ideal man? Each person who approaches this installation will bring with him his own cultural understanding and will see this work through his/her eyes. The show will be very different for an Indian student who is negotiating Australian culture, than it is for a tourist from Qatar. It is hard to break down the stereotypes until you acknowledge them. Over the last 15 year with the rise of the internet and social media we have fundamentally changed the way a new generation is able to construct their identity (including masculinity) there is much more material and more variety. Much of this is hidden in cyberspace is not viewed by the majority of the population. What my work is doing is to bring forward these 20 types (carefully researched from cinema) and presenting them to the population at large and challenging the viewer to accept them as 'real' men.

Looking at these images in the Fed Square context you are placing them in, makes it clear to audiences that these are not images from advertising or does it? How do punters know its art, is it clearly signified and/or is this part of the mystery of the installation. What do you feel about this?

Great point, it has been part of my art practice since 2004 to use materials that are associated with advertising and present the work as if it is advertising without the company brand. This produces 'shock' for the viewer, the form is familiar and comes with a set of expectations but it's not advertising, it is a little confusing. The project I was commissioned to do as Esplanade in Singapore in 2004 was 6 full sized portraits that were stuck to the floor  on of the corridors leading to the concert halls. Singaporeans are used to lots of advertising. It was interesting seeing their reactions to the work. I was trained as a commercial photographer. I love advertising imagery. I want my work to use their vocabulary in order to subvert it.

Qingdao

 I’m Australian, we have a national obsession with sport, we cling to the coastline and we have an issue with alcohol. What does Qingdao have to offer? China’s most famous brewery, decent swimming beaches (though more Melbourne then Noosa), and big stadiums which I was not around for a weekend to see how they are used, although I did meet a former gymnast still staying fit on Number 1 Bathing Beach.

What sets Qingdao apart is its geography and early colonial history. In many ways the coastline of rugged textured stone headlands nestling bathing beaches is not that different to many areas in Australia. I did not find that Qingdao was unfamiliar in the way that Gaungzhou, or Jinan is. Qingdao is not as old as most Australian capitals, with the exception of Canberra. It’s founding was part of Germany’s attempt to keep up with the rest of Europe, by having colonies. History shows this was not a great idea long term. From this period the city has several sections of German buildings, both early 20^th century and modernist. The hills and headlands add a visual relief to the city that the river and inland cities do not have. 

Qingdao is wedding photography city. At every near every place we visited, except Number One Bathing Beach there are women in flouncy inappropriate attire, and men in white and pink suits…. Pink? It is always interesting to watch another country interpret and change things held dear in one’s own culture, I’m sure most Chinese are horrified at what passes as Chinese food in the west… as I am at the wedding photography.  I was a wedding photographer for ten years, there are rules about shooting weddings. Rule one is never, ever, under no circumstances let your bride to see another bride, or else it is bad luck. So on seeing another bride we would steer our bride away. Obviously this rule has been abandoned here. I have photos with up to ten flustered brides and nine frazzled grooms, I am guessing that one went absent without leave or maybe with leave. Thinking about it I didn’t see a couple being photographed on Loushan, wonder if it is off limits too?

Qingdao is home to three important Chinese brands that are changing perceptions of ‘made in China’. My most gracious thanks, to the public relations team at Tsingtao Brewing, for allowing us freedom of the floor in the brewing room and the bottling lines. We made great photographs thanks to your trust in us, and you made me forever a fan of your product. Other brands can learn from this example, providing you have nothing to hide. My apologies to Hisense whom I learnt too late was based in Qingdao, you sponsor a indoor stadium in my city. I would love to photograph your production line on a future trip.

I would like to express my thanks to the Dept of Information who trusted us to see their city, often unsupervised. I would like to thank our interpreters and the random people I met along the way, those who tried to talk to me, those whom posed for photographs or let me make photographs of them, it is in your honour I present my photographs of your city.

impressions of Changzhou

All experiences are mediated by the circumstance, and I feel it's important to give a background to this group of photographs. We were asked to make images of Changzhou how we saw it, in our style. We were hired because rather then commercial shooters we are 'artists', that is many of us had long CVs of photo media shows, two of us having just completed Masters of Arts looking at aspects of China and photography. We were briefed on the previous projects and their short comings, that is the western businessmen and politicians were not suitably impressed with the publications. So the way forward was seen to be to get foreigners to make the photographs thus (in a logic jump) the work would appeal to foreigners. What struck me about the books of Changzhou in the past is that they feature the built environment and almost no people at all.

For me a city is people in a geographic location with a history and a built environment. It is the people who come first they are the keepers of the memory and the historic narratives of the place. The built environment is the place where the narratives have happened.

What happened to me in Changzhou, was a difference in culture I had not yet encountered, let me explain. There is a Chinese way of doing thing and there are western ways of doing things. For a government official hosting is very important and must be done right. The Chinese way involves never leaving your guests, making sure they are cared for as long as they are reasonably expected to be out of their hotel rooms, and they are to be fed, spectacularly. For me, I will arrive in a city, go to the ‘down town’ area and see what is there. I like to randomly meet people, and get a feel for the city. This has been my way since I was a teenager exploring Brisbane. All the cities I have visited since I’ve never have I had more then a guidebook and a couple of addresses of bars to start with. Some of my random meetings turn into friendships that last a lifetime and these friends show me their city. Not the tourist sites but the daily life of what it means to be in that city for them. Needless to say this creates some frustration on both sides.  Interestingly the day that I decided that it was not worth pushing to see the city in my way, our hosts began offered us three choices during most sessions which seemed to have an eye to our requests made before arriving.

There were a number of things on the list of ‘must do’ and people we ‘must see’. Politics is about pleasing people and we were 6 foreign and 2 Chinese photographers who had come in a blaze of publicity to see the city with new eyes. We had three full time photographers documenting us, along with different reporters and photographers on a daily basis. These ‘must sees’ like the Dinosaur Park, Yan Chang, for instance were fantastic, as is the park life in the four parks I visited. Each of us had our own list of things to see, on mine was being imbedded with a family each day, we did get a family each for a Sunday afternoon, which gave each of a us the chance of living like a middle class Changzhouee or would it Changzhouer? A hospital for a birth, well ask for the moon (as Bobby says) and you’ll get something, I got the famous Chinese Medicine hospital, for only 90mins photography time, but really happy with the work, I made there. My spectacular achievement was asking for a factory that made big things. Bobby and a Kenza had already visit a car factory, which turned out to be the Research and development centre, so on our last day together, our hosts found a tractor factory that would give us permission to photograph. In one site there is the history of the Communist Party period to date. Established in 1952 it still using many of the buildings that where built then, including an office that is exquisite 1950s geometric design. It also has completely state of the art assembly lines. It is this photographer’s heaven, including my themes of men and masculinity, as well as my history working in sheet metal. If the Changzhou Dongfeng Agricultural Machinery Group would like to produce a book recording this moment in time, my hand is up!

Of course this essay is meant to be about how my experience of Changzhou and how I saw the city. So let me make some observations, as a man who stayed in 5 star luxury, ate Chinese banquets for lunch and dinner most days (before needing something my stomach recognised – and could only find Pizza Hut), who suffered low blood sugar with the change of diet and some gastro (one day my stomach will handle China), worked extremely long hours (8 days of 15-6 hours a day) these last two conditions caused some ‘irritability’. The streets are clean, as clean as Sydney or Melbourne much cleaner then Beijing where I am based, this may have to do with Beijing’s demotion of entire communities on it fringes and the dust it creates and the topsoil lost. There is not the constant guttural sound of people bring up phlegm and spitting, which I am still not coping with in Beijing. The men’s toilet floors are dry, now this observation I thought would be (for men) a given anywhere, but in my travels in China It would seem that it is remarkable the many men do not have wet shoes and jeans coming out of the toilet. I do have several photos of the men’s toilets to prove this point but they did not make it through the selection process. Chengzhou is couth, civilised and polite, it seems to have all the amenities I expect in a Chinese city without the rough edges. I just don’t know if there is a decent western restaurant…

http://garriemaguire.com/Changzhou

Portraiture in China is a verb, in Australia it is a noun

Sitting in a cafe in 798

Thinking about the residency I'm on and what is different about making a portrait in China as apposed to the west. My research brought up some interesting thoughts. Firstly we in the 'West' (I say South) are much more about naming things and catagorising them. In China things are described much more relationally, actively, and often as verbs. So this is a blog about exploring portraiture as a verb.

In the Head On photographic portrait prize several years ago a high commendation was awarded to Kris Machancho's ‘Hero's on a day off’. This was the Marcel Duchamp moment in the history of the prize, as the photograph did not have a face, but more so it was two people acting as famous fictional characters. So what can be considered a portrait was greatly enlarged. Perhaps now it is just that the photograph needs to have a human in it. So the great 'point' of portraiture doesn't hold anymore:

Yes, I cannot hide it any longer: I usually select content over form. Instead of creating a graphically surprising image, I am more interested in capturing the inner truth. - Philippe Halsman

Or perhaps Newman is closer to the truth:

I am convinced that any photographic attempt to show the complete man is nonsense. We can only show, as best we can, what the outer man reveals. The inner man is seldom revealed to anyone, sometimes not even the man himself. - Arnold Newman

In essence what photographers have endeavoured to do is find little more than the public persona of someone to show who they are to a wide audience. It’s a bit like letting us into a secret. In the work of Halsman and later Leibovitz, we find in their most involved work elaborate sets and with famous people that are PR people’s dreams (and if they go wrong, 'nightmares'). What they do is push a side of the famous that makes us think we are being let into a secret. These photographs are interesting - they are about doing, not sitting/being. Much of the Western portrait tradition is indeed about sitting or standing but in the end it's about physical appearance. Thomas Ruff, Irving Penn and many others' work comes to mind. It is about a noun, the person. It attempts to show more than the physical. But photography is about the physical - what is in front of the camera at any given moment (and what is done afterwards on the computer, ranging from slight colour and tonal shifts - like my work, to full scale changing of the person - see the blog photoshop disasters). 

So we photograph people motionless, and still and we usually call this a 'portrait'. But even in the West we do not define ourselves by physical appearance (except on personal adverts in social media). When someone asks me to tell them about myself I usually start with my hobbies, career, and aspirations; not my age, height, and build. I am not me unless I’m moving. Doing. I’m not a man unless I'm in action. When I'm sleeping I may well be less of a man.

Lets go back a step here and consider my work to date. I’ve been told my work is very formalist. I arrange things and still things. This is interesting. I've always been attracted to the work of Robert Mapplethorpe, but also Henri Cartier-Bresson. Though at this point I'm trying to move closer to HBC though (often) within a controlled environment. Here in Beijing I have an opportunity in that the Chinese don't mind being photographed by and large. Street photography works. Having a 200mm lens also helps; it allows me photographs before people are close enough to notice, before they pose. 

On this residency I have been making photographs that are street shooting (HBC style) formal portraits (RM style in colour) and a intriguing combination. That is when I find a situation that I like (for example on a subway) I find someone to make the photograph. Most of the people I arrange to photograph, I know their names. Many of the people I photograph in the street I also ask their name. In doing so I’m blurring the difference between known and unknown. In fact having just arrived in Beijing, how well can I ‘know’ any of the people in my photographs? But if they are doing something they are exhibiting their public persona. In doing so they are open to be photographed as a portrait. Portraiture can be no more then a representation of a persona. Unlike my Federation Square project I have not asked anyone to be something they are not. All the men in these photographs are being/performing/doing, themselves. 

Chinese culture has not had the emphasis on nouns that we do. Research shows that children in China learn as many verbs as nouns. The language and the culture likes defining things in terms of doing and relationships. I'm not picking up on human relationships here, but i am picking up on the relationship between doing and being. I've been trying to meet as many people as possible while I’m here and learn as much as possible. One of my meetings was with a linguist who talked about the interchangeability of nouns and verbs. This I found very interesting from a portrait point of view. 

http://www.garriemaguire.com/beijing1

the masters is up

funny how you do a major project and when it gets up and you give it to the world, it's like a child leaving home... nice if you don't see them for a while...

Still need more press... will do something about that tomorrow...

if you've not been able to see the show,


www.projeqt.com/garrie

A Master

Do you have a burning question that just isn't ever really fully answered?

The first half of mine has been with me since I can remember. It is why am I so uncomfortable with the type of man that I feel that others/society expect me to be? The second half didn't come until I was 26, which is why am I so comfortable with how Chinese culture sees being a man?

For the last 5 years I have been paying to research this question, at RMIT. Five years is a long journey. I changed jobs, lost one, have been overseas many times. Lost friends because I didn't stay in contact. Gained one close friend. Lost 15kgs and got fit. Learnt to be a teacher. Made almost no art to show. All combining in one paper of 17 500 words about the art I've been making and the new work for this project. So next week my new project (with all five years of thinking) will go up at federation square in the atrium.

As I reflect on it. A couple of things come to mind. I answered the two other questions I set out too. One; the work I made in the 90s and 00s, how does that fit in with theory. Two; where should my work go from here? Digital is a big challenge to photography. It has changed the whole industry and the way we consume photography. We now see so much and make so much, that photography become a little meaningless and mediocrity rules. How do we move from that point? The solution, that I came to is; strong concept, and/or edit brutally. This show is about concept and questioning.

The exhibition shows Anglo-Celtic Australian masculinity (ACAM) and Chinese masculinity and contrasts them. Each person who comes to the project will bring their own Masculinity with them, and they will interprets the show on that basis. An Arab Australian man will see the show quite differently to a Greek tourist. I've used the ACAM because it is the one that is represented time and again in Australian cinema which was the basis for my research. This masculinity and its variants are in our face all the time. Most of the Chinese men in this project are Australians too. As such their masculinity may or may not be formed with reference to the ACAM.


Here is the press release and the promo photo of me..

For Immediate Release Media contact: Garrie Maguire 
Phone: 0412416903
email: g@garriemagurie.com

Hanging between heaven and earth inside Federation Squares’ Atrium will be an installation by Melbourne artist Garrie Maguire. The subject is men - specifically, what sort of “man” we want the males around us to be.

On view from Jan 24th to Feb 17th, encompassing Australia Day and Chinese New Year, the exhibition celebrates the many varied forms of Anglo Celtic Australian and Chinese masculinity. Each of these types is inspired by an archetype of masculinity reflected in Australian and Chinese film.

Five years in the making, Maguire’s research opens new horizons on how we see the Men in our lives, and offers new visions for how we Men might re-imagine ourselves.

The installation is part of a Master of Arts at RMIT, and tests the boundaries of digital photography to reconstruct each portrait from segmented exposures. Printed, on the very excitingly named, PETG (transparent glycol-modified polyethylene terephthalate), and suspended in formation from the ceiling, the images glow with an enigmatic brilliance. The life-sized banners take on the feel of an ethereal constellation.

“We could grow much richer as a nation if we adopt the best from all the cultures that come to make Australia...and not just in cooking.” garrie maguire

“I’ve illustrated two understandings of masculinity, each viewer will bring their own culture and understanding, this is good.“ garrie maguire

Federation Square Atrium Jan 25 to Feb 17