By presenting exhibitions based on the five senses, she hopes to inspire the exhibition audience to think about these issues. Judy uses silver gelatin photography, digital projection, locally recorded ambient sounds, music and conversation, alongside informative text and interactive items for touch taste and smell, to submerge the audience in the experience.
Judy Parrott is an artist based in Brisbane, Australia, working on her series Place Matters. The series is based on communities from around the globe and addresses the importance of connection to place for communities, and their culture. Judy believes one aspect of this is how we interact with our physical environment and how this affects our feeling of belonging and thus our immediate and long term well-being.
I use silver gelatin photography, digital projection, a soundscape of locally recorded ambient sounds, music and conversation, alongside informative text and interactive items for touch taste and smell, to submerge my audience in the experience. On completion of the exhibition the work has to date been diversified into further uses such as artists diary, DVD, cards, calendars, community use and artist talks and slide shows.
My first exhibition in the series was in 2002. ‘West End – A Sense of Place’ looked at how rapid development, gentrification and homogenisation are displacing people and causing anxiety in my local suburb of West End, Brisbane. The changes to this social and built environment are controversial in a community where the sense of place has been represented by creativity, a celebration of diversity and putting human values before profit.
In 2003 I received funding from Ian Potter Cultural Trust and Arts Queensland to travel to Bolivia with Miguel Ayma Tuco to document the community and sense of place of the Aymara people in Bolivia. Miguel Ayma Tuco being the cousin of President Evo Morales, I gained an introduction to Evo Morales, at that time the Indigenous leader in Bolivia and since elected as the country’s president. Whilst in Bolivia I was able to document the family and birth place of President Evo Morales and the popular uprising which led to the resignation of the president of the time, President Gonzalo Sanchez de Losada. The resulting exhibition was held at The Brisbane Powerhouse in 2004.
My exhibition ‘Antarctica – A Place in the Wilderness’, was the product of an arts fellowship with the Australian Antarctic Division in 2005 - 2006. Documenting a two month residency at Australia’s Casey Station, ten days on the ship, Aurora Australis and a month on the Russian ship, Vasiliy Golvnin, calling at both Mawson and Davis stations, the exhibition covers many aspects of community life in Antarctica. ‘Antarctica – A Place in the Wilderness’ is touring Australia in 2007 and 2008, including being shown at Parliament House, Canberra.
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Judy’s Projects on Bute
Residency Dates Judy Feb 07 - May 07