Mountain (series in progress)
Spare Time
The images are familiar to anyone who grew up in 1950’s or 60’s Australia...Mifsud has played with the images scanning, cropping, editing and manipulating them to “create visual resemblances to impressionistic memories”. They recall a lost time, the myth of Menzies’ post-war white Australia. There is also a strong sense of family as the images reflect intimate glimpses of family – and it is no surprise to discover that the original slides were taken by Mifsud’s late father-in-law, Doug Shearston who became a keen amateur photographer when he returned from World War Two. This family connection also creates a bridge through generations to the multicultural present as we can’t help reading the images of an imaged perfect past through a contemporary lens.
Adding it all up, by Mark Roberts, ‘Eight + One’ at The Shop Gallery, Rochford Street Review, 5 March 2015
Spare Time (2013), comprises of 34 photographic works are derived from 1950 and 60s family slides. The slides were scanned, cropped, edited and manipulated to create visual resemblances to impressionistic memories from which details have, over time, fallen away.
The original slides were taken by my late father-in-law, Doug Shearston a keen amateur photographer, and World War II veteran. After returning from three years’ active service in New Guinea and Borneo, Doug wanted an idyllic family life. This he helped create, and then documented in photographs.
A key link between ‘white’ Australia of the 1950s and 60s and multi-ethnic Australia today, is of course, the family. Now, digital family photographs travel the world at speed, weaving a growing web of human connections that, perhaps more than ever before, reinforce our collective memory and common humanity.
Like billions of other family photographs, these – re-presented here – will, hopefully, contribute to the visual unconscious of a global human family from which confrontation and division have also fallen away.
Spare Time is dedicated to the memory of George Douglas Shearston (1914-2007)
Each of the Spare Time images is:
List Spare Time Works:
# Title Print Size H x W cm Price $AUD # Title Print Size H x W cm Price $AUD
1. Afternoon Fishing 28 x 42 NFS 18. House Garden 26 x 42 $495
2. Backyard 27.7 x 42 $495 19. Lake 25.5 x 42 $495
3. Beach Family 1 27.7 x 42 SOLD 20. Lakeside Picnic 26.7 x 42 $495
4. Beach Family 2 31 x 42 SOLD 21. Memorial 42 x 42 SOLD
5. Beach Pair 21.5 x 42 $495 22. Observatory 50.5 x 80 $695
6. Boats 33 x 42 SOLD 23. Picnic Child 33 x 42 SOLD
7. Bowls 32 x 42 $495 24. Sand Hill Kids 28.5 x 42 SOLD
8. Boys and Boat 32 x 42 SOLD 25. Seaside Camp 36 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
9. Bridge 51 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2) 26. Snow Holiday 26.7 x 42 NFS
10. By the Seaside 54 x 80 SOLD 27. Sun Bathers 28 x 42 SOLD
11. Cemetery 49 x 80 $695 28. Three Women 30 x 42 SOLD
12. Dune Grass 53 x 80 SOLD 29. Two Men 42.8 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
13. Evening Boats 55 x 80 $695 30. Two Women 1 51.5 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
14. Formal Couple 34.5 x 42 SOLD 31. Two Women 2 51.5 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
15. Holiday House 1 22 x 42 NFS 32. Waiting Women 23.6 x 42 $495
16. Holiday House 2 28.7 x 42 $495 33. Water Skier 53 x 80 $695
17. Holiday House 3 42 x 47 SOLD 34. Wedding 26.7 x 42 $495
- printed on Fuji Crystal Archive photographic paper
- face-mounted to clear acrylic
- framed in a wooden retro style frame, painted ‘off white’.
- each Spare Time work is has a limited edition of 1 copy unless otherwise specified below.
List Spare Time Works:
# Title Print Size H x W cm Price $AUD # Title Print Size H x W cm Price $AUD
1. Afternoon Fishing 28 x 42 NFS 18. House Garden 26 x 42 $495
2. Backyard 27.7 x 42 $495 19. Lake 25.5 x 42 $495
3. Beach Family 1 27.7 x 42 SOLD 20. Lakeside Picnic 26.7 x 42 $495
4. Beach Family 2 31 x 42 SOLD 21. Memorial 42 x 42 SOLD
5. Beach Pair 21.5 x 42 $495 22. Observatory 50.5 x 80 $695
6. Boats 33 x 42 SOLD 23. Picnic Child 33 x 42 SOLD
7. Bowls 32 x 42 $495 24. Sand Hill Kids 28.5 x 42 SOLD
8. Boys and Boat 32 x 42 SOLD 25. Seaside Camp 36 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
9. Bridge 51 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2) 26. Snow Holiday 26.7 x 42 NFS
10. By the Seaside 54 x 80 SOLD 27. Sun Bathers 28 x 42 SOLD
11. Cemetery 49 x 80 $695 28. Three Women 30 x 42 SOLD
12. Dune Grass 53 x 80 SOLD 29. Two Men 42.8 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
13. Evening Boats 55 x 80 $695 30. Two Women 1 51.5 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
14. Formal Couple 34.5 x 42 SOLD 31. Two Women 2 51.5 x 80 SOLD OUT (2 of 2)
15. Holiday House 1 22 x 42 NFS 32. Waiting Women 23.6 x 42 $495
16. Holiday House 2 28.7 x 42 $495 33. Water Skier 53 x 80 $695
17. Holiday House 3 42 x 47 SOLD 34. Wedding 26.7 x 42 $495
Place
Correspondence (2009)
1.Correspondence 2009 (tea tree) archival print on paper, mounted on archival board, 41.0 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
2. Correspondence 2009 willow) archival print on paper, 41.0 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
3. Correspondence 2009 wattle) archival print on paper, 41.0 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
4. Correspondence 2009 fruit blossom) archival print on paper,
5. Correspondence 2009 fern) archival print on paper, 41 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
6. Correspondence 2009 Correa leaf) archival print on paper 41 x 16 cm, unique print $AUD180.
2. Correspondence 2009 willow) archival print on paper, 41.0 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
3. Correspondence 2009 wattle) archival print on paper, 41.0 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
4. Correspondence 2009 fruit blossom) archival print on paper,
5. Correspondence 2009 fern) archival print on paper, 41 x 28.5 cm, unique print $AUD180.
6. Correspondence 2009 Correa leaf) archival print on paper 41 x 16 cm, unique print $AUD180.
The Living Room (2001)
The Living Room, installation view at RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, 2001
1. Untitled (house on hill, Carcour NSW), T124 x 104 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD1500
2. Untitled (four trees on hill near Bredbo, NSW), 54 x 224 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. SOLD
3. Untitled (tree lines near Canberra), 41 x 224 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD2300
4. Untitled (serrated tussock grass near Oberon, NSW), 62 x 124 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD500
5. Untitled (dam near Nowra, NSW), 59 x 124 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD500
6. Untitled (Coal Mine, Gloucester, NSW), 66 x 224 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD2300
7. Untitled (nettle field near Cooma, NSW), 134 x 124 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD1500
8. Untitled (single tree, Braidwood, NSW), 79 x 224 cm. Type C photograph, mounted on Lexan. Unique photograph. $AUD2300
After Life (1996)