Practice Gallery

DOWNTOWN
Simon Cuthbert
Cast Gallery 205

Simon Cuthbert photographs really bad restaurants, incredibly well. Just look at them; pictures of décor and scenery that you would not die for. He also photographs authentically unbelievable shop displays, old buildings, young buildings, disappearing buildings, whole buildings, parts of buildings and views from buildings, portraying both interior space, and exterior form, from Moonah to Las Vegas, Surfers Paradise to Hawaii, China, Japan, Laos, USA; well of course everywhere he travels, he goes ‘downtown’ with his camera.

I first met Simon upon my return to Tasmania after 5 years working in Sydney, where I was involved with the conceptual stage of designing a major art gallery in Brisbane. I had been out of touch with Hobart for close to 10 years and somehow our paths had not crossed. He introduced himself to me at an art opening and wanted to know all about the GOMA[1] project, since Brisbane was his hometown. He was also keen to learn that I had returned to Hobart to work on the IXL stone buildings.

My first ‘collectable’ photograph is a Simon Cuthbert, called ‘The Problem with Concrete’, which is a pre-cast concrete, multi-level car park, and shows a swatch of large paint colours; an attempt by the architect, builder, owner or developer, to come to terms with the finish. The quality of the building (soon to be lost by the regularity of paint) is heightened by the swatch itself and the moment is captured by Simon’s shutter.

The documentary function of the photograph, to record things that may be lost, recurs in Simon’s work, and is central to the process of recording what he considers as the “authentic”. He is very passionate about public space and the need for a high level of altruism in cities, a quality that is fundamental, yet has been eroded in all cities worldwide. It is no accident, therefore, amid a world of homogeneity of built form, and the privatisation of public assets, public buildings, public waterfronts, bays, public forests, etc, that Simon also works inside an art museum, one of the last generic public building types[2].

Simon Cuthbert is not an ‘architectural’ photographer per se. Rather, he appropriates architecture (often anonymous, vernacular buildings and spaces) and adds a new dimension, or ‘way of seeing’, through the camera lens. This acute ability is sharpened by his work with museological documentation of fine art and artefact.

With a level of subtlety and humbleness, Simon has recently explored and developed a more subliminal approach to taking photographs, entering a kind of interstitial photographic space, where reality is approached from the reverse side. The image, portrayed in its raw state and at first glance, could not possibly be real – yet, it is.

In these photographs, Simon invents the ‘found picture as tromp l’oiel’, placing so much emphasis on the interior space of a building and its relation to outside, or beyond the surface, that it becomes unreal. Coming Home is one such photograph, (winner of the 2005 Island Art Prize) where a huge wilderness view completes the baggage carousel experience at Hobart airport. Similar spatial qualities appear in ‘Sing Sing’, ‘Greasy Joes’ and ‘Big Foot’. In ‘Mirror Mirror’, (winner of the 2005 Prometheus Visual Arts Award), the “minimalist” subject matter – a tiled wall and a mirror – is further reduced by the simplicity of the reflection, which belies reality.

Like a photograph, the architectural drawing is a representation of reality, employed to redefine a location or a place, by stripping the accompaniments; taking away … the process of stripping an idea until it becomes something else, until it either loses its meaning, or, it takes another meaning. Simon redefines and sublimely re-presents his subject through a camera, with a precise mastery of the art of photography.

James Jones

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[1] Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (Architectus, 2001–2006)
[2] The art museum is an intellectual institution, a cultural interface, an intellectual metaphor for the present and for history. The art museum is significant for the public consciousness, characterised by the fact that it returns enclosed public space to the city.