Bleached Gothic by Australian Photographer Petrina Hicks

Shenae and Jade (2005) from the Untitled series 2005. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 93.0. Courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Bruised Peaches (2018) from the Still Life Studio series 2018 ed. 2/4. Pigment inkjet print: 120.0 x 120.0 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2018 © Petrina Hicks. Courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne.

Rattlesnake Blues (2016) from The California Works series 2016. Pigment inkjet print: 120.0 x 120.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Venus (2013) from the The Shadows series 2014. Pigment inkjet print. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Birds Eye (2018) from the Still Life Studio series 2018 ed. 2/4. Pigment inkjet print: 120.0 x 120.0 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2018 © Petrina Hicks. Courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne.

Birdfingers (2013) from The Shadows series 2014. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 100.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Celebrated Australian photographer Petrina Hicks presents her first major survey exhibition with Bleached Gothic, a book and exhibition including over 40 photo and video works captured over her 15-year career since 2003. Living up to her reputation for enigmatic and multi-layered images, Hicks’ surreal compositions are seen together for the first time, each diverse in their conveyance of the inherent ambiguity and complexity of the female experience.

In her contemporary art practice, Hicks draws on the aesthetics and techniques developed during her previous career as a commercial photographer, recreating the shimmering allure of advertising and portraiture in her impeccably pristine images. Present across many of Hicks’ works is the tension between seduction and danger, familiarity and strangeness, intimacy and distance. Women, girls, and animals are recurring subjects, portraying inspiration from mythology and art history.

The Beauty of History (2010) from the Every Rose has its Thorn series 2010. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 100.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Serpentina II (2015) from The Unbearable Lightness of Being series 2015. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 100.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Infinity (2011) from the Beautiful Creatures series 2011. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 100.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Lambswool (2008) from The Descendants series 2008. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 100.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

Shewolf I (2016) from The California Works series 2016. Pigment inkjet print: 100.0 x 129.0. Collection of the artist, courtesy of Michael Reid, Sydney; and This Is No Fantasy, Melbourne © Petrina Hicks.

In one work, a white snake coiling around a pale arm evokes biblical notions of purity, subverting common associations with the animal as cold and repellant and leaning into a softer, more mythical interpretation. Her hyper-real images repeatedly return to inter-species associations to highlight similarities between humans and animals, suggesting we are closer to the animal state than we might care to acknowledge.

Hicks also plays into the beauty of history, blurring the difference between flesh and marble with photographs of classical sculptures that, when viewed alongside real-life women in similar poses, elevate both to a more symbolic realm. For example, a reclining nude cradling aged ceramic vessels is a play on a classical Greek motif. By photographing classical busts, Hicks refocuses our contemporary vision, more used to selfies than stone statues, to appreciate historical narrative rather than what is purely ‘now’.

Installation view of Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic at the Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 27 September 2019 – 29 March 2020. Photo by Tom Ross.

Also included in the exhibition are five video works that play with the concept of slow time. Hicks moves beyond the two-dimensionality of a photograph, stretching out single moments through durational photography. Presented side by side, the photographs and the videos appear remarkably similar, yet the video serves to heighten viewers’ sense of unease; transforming what in real life might be a beautiful moment into something menacing when replayed in a measured, slow loop.

Petrina Hicks: Bleached Gothic is on display until Sunday 29 March 2020 at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia at Federation Square. Entry is free. The NGV has also published a large-scale, illustrated monograph to coincide with the exhibition, detailing the artist’s work to date.