New exhibition explores Northern rivers' youth and their environment
A new exhibition by documentary photographer Tajette O’Halloran, opening this week, offers an intimate portrait of the young people who gather at a well-known abandoned brickworks quarry in rural New South Wales.
Photographed over two years at Bexhill Quarry on the outskirts of Lismore, NSW, The Quarry documents the people and ecosystems within the area that has become a popular swimming destination for both locals and tourists.
At the centre of this work is the experience of adolescence in regional and rural contexts, and the location of the quarry as an informal social space where adolescents gather, perform, and form communities.
Located within a flood-prone landscape marked by cycles of disruption and recovery, the exhibition seeks to draw on these cycles and captures the ongoing process of repair, rebuilding and recovery that characterises the community.
Tajette O’Halloran describes herself as an Australian photographic artist whose practice investigates the social and emotional terrain of adolescence, identity, and belonging within the context of regional and rural Australia.
Speaking about the project on her website, O'Halloran describes the quarry as a site where individuals seek refuge from the heat, and the more subtle pervasive hardships in their lives.
"Through these connections, the work uncovers the ways in which both human interaction and the surrounding environment engage in a constant state of flux and transformation," she says.
The Quarry opens on August 1 and runs until 31 August at Melbourne's Hillview gallery, 43-45 Edward St, Brunswick.
You can find out more about the exhibition here.