MICHELLE TRAN
on The Level
Exhibition - 29 February to 24 March 2012
In 2012 we will continue the series of invited exhibitions to be held in our
mezzanine space The Level. Throughout the year, we will open this space for
one-off exhibitions featuring emerging through to established artists working
in a variety of media.
Our second exhibition in The Level for 2012 will feature Melbourne-based
artist Michelle Tran.
At first glance Tran’s photographs are unassuming, on second glance they
epitomize it. A now unusable cassette tape, an unremarkable painting
unceremoniously lent against a wall, an unsightly unfinished paint job, an
unconvincing vase of fake flowers, and a set of very uncool curtains, at least
for anyone under the age of 70, are the lonely household remnants which
together seemingly document a non-event - the aftermath of moving out and
moving on.
But amid this array of stuff-one-leaves-behind, captured in all its muted
glory, are a couple of less subtle clues that Tran’s work is more than it
seems. For starters Vince, the image of a cat that literally hangs in the
balance, held up by its owner for their and our judgment, asks wryly, will he
make the cut? A wink at the viewer to signal that (at least one hopes) this
narrative of life once lived is part fiction.
In fact, Tran’s work is a significant departure from truth and the artistic
tradition of self-portraiture, namely because the one person who appears in
her work on The Level, is not actually Tran. For her, self-representation
begins with pointing the camera away from herself, at the people, objects and
environments that collectively say more about her than she does. An idea that
becomes most fully realised through engaging artifice, by constructing scenes,
portraits and still lives that re-enact experiences from her ‘real-life’ like
a slightly blurry dream.
This perhaps isn’t that revolutionary an approach in an era when it is
commonplace to document and publish online a visual edit of your life that
most favourably depicts the ‘you’ you want the world to see. But it is Tran’s
ability to find quiet beauty in the unpretentious where the contrast lies.
This focus on the forgotten, banal and downright musty discards that didn’t
make the edit, is what makes her work a true breath of fresh air.
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© Michelle Tran
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