Aloisia Cudmore is a Canberra-based emerging photographer who was awarded the PhotoAccess Wide Angle Residency 2021. Below Aloisia shares some insights at how her residency has been going.
Fresh out of the ANU School of Art & Design (in quite a tumultuous year), I received the PhotoAccess EASS residency. With no plans post art school, launching into the residency, I had very few thoughts on how my artistic trajectory for the year would pan out.
In my final and honours year of my degree I investigated intimacy through a photographic and digital lens. This eventuated in a number of ways –photographic prints, a video, sound and sculptural work, and an installation. Upon receiving a photographic residency, I was unsure of what my next steps were.
Without throwing the whole idea of intimacy out the window, I still wanted to explore themes similar to this – familiarity, comfort, closeness. In saying this I really struggled to get stuck into the rhythm of photographic practise. I felt quite burnt out from my four years of study and was unsure how to begin an everyday art practice. I tried a few different things (as seen in the photos): black and white analogue photography, colour analogue photography, scanning film, drawing, drawing on top of images, and inkjet printing. What feels most natural to me is colour observational photography, drawing, and digital work.
I am now carrying my camera around with me to throw myself into my photographic practice. I mainly bring it to social events, spending time with other people – exploring the abstract aesthetic codes of familiarity. This will eventuate into a visual documentation of this familiarity, through image making as a whole. The experimentation of materiality, colour, and other visual dimensions of these works are essential.
I am very grateful for the assistance of the PhotoAccess team throughout my residency thus far. They have provided essential support and consultation in developing my artistic practice post-art school.