Exhibition: bella Venezia – Vanessa Wiggins

Bella Venezia is a reflection on the idealised beauty of an ancient city that has survived a colourful and turbulent history into the present day.

Iconic and romanticised objects of Venice, like the centuries old tradition of Venetian masks are featured. They conjure up images of the beautifully lit canals with gondoliers and marbled arched bridges, representing the mystery of old Venice. It is also a reflection on the ongoing decay of time and the modern day wear and tear, represented through the street graffiti covering many of the old and beautifully intricate buildings, the result of a tourism industry that sees over 20 million visitors a year.

Each unique four colour carbon transfer hand crafted photograph portrays a city trapped in both the past and the present. Like an old majestic queen with her tarnished crown, she is still standing with the pride of memories of what she once was.

Vanessa Wiggins

Vanessa’s visual imagery work draws on objects and experiences with the desire to stimulate the imagination and internal psychological responses of her audience. This visual investigation of the subject matter seeks to engage the viewer on several levels; to prompt or challenge social collective memory and to evoke the viewers’ internal dialogue of their experience.

Vanessa is a fine art photographer and hand craft printer. She specialises in combining 21st century digital imagery with 18th and 19th century photographic printing processes, creating hand crafted, unique state prints. The result is a wonderful intersection between the material nature of these one of a kind, precious and historically based articles and the ephemeral nature of the digital image in the internet age. It is through this intersection that Vanessa seeks to create a pause for the viewer to see the digital world through the paradigm of a more refined, artisan and bespoke framework.

Gold Street Studios & Gallery

700 James Lane

Trentham East. Victoria

31 January – 29 April 2018