Marie Shannon: Rooms found only in the home

Sensitive, authentic and funny, Marie Shannon’s photography and video works present contemporary art as an intimate and immediate occupation. Rooms found only in the home is developed out of holdings of Marie Shannon’s works in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection and the artist’s personal archive. The exhibition explores the intersecting spheres of her practice; considering her different conceptual interests and dual focus on photography and video.

Many of Shannon’s works hinge on relationships – the objects and evidence of personal interactions enacted through the course of everyday life. As she focuses attention on her family life, daily observations, and the process of art-making, a sense of past and present becomes important. Over time, the concept of distance has come to play a more acute role in Shannon’s work, with the effects of separation and the passage of time becoming prevalent concerns. Her video works and recent photography introduce more of an archival tendency – a process of cataloguing the contents, absences, and memories that shape her present day.

Developed and toured by Dunedin Public Art Gallery and presented as part of the Auckland Festival of Photography.

Image: Phone Friends, 1990