words & images
PDF of MFA exegesis: To Occupy
Cavity works discussed in Age newspaper arts review by Robert Nelson 22 July 2009
"Normally, photography also has the stability of a rectangle; but the photographic work of Alison Bennett stitches together many frames, so that you experience a surround-vision of interior space. The sense of the endless indoor panorama needn't be disorienting, but Bennett's inside world has no doors and has your head spinning as you look for co-ordinates.
Her images are made in the spookiest Victorian caves. There are signs that these rocky hermitages have been used at some stage for dwelling, perhaps by outcasts or bandits and certainly known by Aboriginal people for millennia. Given these wayward social, architectural and geographic dimensions, the conventional photographic rectangle no longer seems appropriate."
Cavity mentioned in Sunday Age Life magazine 7 June 2009 p.35
Interview with Cameron Bruhn: Do you have your eye on anything? "I look out for interesting photographic works - a series by Alison Bennett called Cavity has recently captured my attention."
Cavity listed in Landscape Architecture
To Occupy reviewed in InDesign magazine #35 Nov 2008 by Penny Craswell p.56-57
To Occupy reviewed in Un Magazine 2.2 by Sven Knudsen
Verticalism reviewed in Artichoke #24 by Marcus Baumgart
Five images from In Ruins and To Occupy series antiTHESIS journal Vol.17
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antiTHESIS is a fully refereed journal of contemporary theory, criticism and culture, and Australia's longest-running interdisciplinary postgraduate journal. It is produced by postgraduates in the Department of English with Cultural Studies and Creative Writing at The University of Melbourne. www.english.unimelb.edu.au/antithesis/new2005/
Making Hay reviewed by Robert Nelson, The Age 15 Nov 2006 pp.19
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"Alongside the documentary character of the work, the composite pieces of Alison Bennett stand out. She has interpreted an interior and the outside of a shack, apparently stitching together different perspectives. At first its disorienting, but then you realise that the photographer is rhythmically escorting your gaze through different phases to form an organic whole that you wouldnt get with a single viewpoint. This wobbly integrity is congruent with the subject matter: old rickety places with an episodic slant, houses that still have a lot of heart. . . . Bennett's work at Hay might be compared with Walker Evans
Bedroom from the 1930s. "
Dereliction and the space between paper presented at antiTHESIS symposium on deja vu Melbourne University 7 July 2006
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Abstract: The experience of space is imaginative and visceral. As an artist, I explore aspects of the experience of place and time through images of ruined interiors, seeking an uncanny fusion of document and distortion that mimics the experience of interior spaces. I am interested in exploring the conflation of architectural and psychological 'interiority'. I am interested in the space between the physical fabric of a building and the lives enacted within it. Architecture has 'duration', the element of space embodied over time. This points to the unique power of interiors, the jolt of being enfolded by a space, of engaging with those that have come before and will come after. Decay both erases and reveals traces, a form of palimpsest in the narrative space of the interior. The gaps provoke supposition and speculation. Boundaries disintegrate and the skin falls from the walls revealing structure and knowledge. Time literally surfaces.
Woolsheds & Shearers Quarters reviewed by Philip Drew Indesign magazine Feb 2006
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Frames of Reference: photographing Hill End (catalogue essay by Alison Bennett)
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Nov 2005
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Arena Magazine (cover) No.78 Aug - Sept 2005
Vogue Living exhibition listings July 2005
State of the Arts [online] artistic travels July 2005
www.stateart.com.au/sota/hit-list/default.asp?fid=3637
comments by Dr Martha Sear at the opening of Woolsheds & Shearers' Quarters
Historic Houses Trust March 2005
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Gendered Landscapes Project - Literature Review by Bronwyn Hanna 2003 for NPWS www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/PDFs/genderedLP_litrev.pdf
Inside Hill End reviewed by Dr. Charles Rice Architecture Australia July 2004
www.archmedia.com.au/aa/aaissue.php?issueid=200407&article=4&typeon=1
Inside Hill End photographs included in Regendering Landscape, unpublished report by Bronwyn Hanna for the Cultural Heritage Division of National Parks & Wildlife Service of NSW 2003
Inside Hill End photographs accompanying article by Sally Webster Insites magazine, Historic Houses Trust of NSWSummer 2003. Pp. 6-7
Frames of Authenticity Review of Hill End Artist Residency by Ruth Hingston & Tim Brook by Alison Bennett in ArtReach Dec 2003
www.regionalartsnsw.com.au/docs/artreach/hill_end_dec_03.pdf
Applique: embroidery by Jason Moss gallery onefivesix (catalogue foreword by Alison Bennett) 2002
Paddling in the Deep End by Alison Bennett Craft Victoria Bulletin.No.1 1999. Pp.22-23
Hong Kong report by Alison Bennet Art Asia Pacific Issue 19, 1998. Pp.36-37
One Country, Two Systems? A 1997 Asialink residency Alison Bennett Museum National Vol.6 No.4 May 1998. Pp.19-20
In & Out: Contemporary Chinese Art from China and Australia, review by Alison Bennett Like, No. 4, Spring 1997. Pp.47
Exhibition Timelines: What you need to do, think about and when by Alison Bennett Craft Victoria Bulletin No.2 1997