Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2017, The Louvre, Paris, France</em> (2021) <!-- (recto) --><br />

cibachrome photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
89.5 x 59.0 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.163<br />
© Rudi Williams
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EN

IT

The work of Rudi Williams

L’opera di Rudi Williams

NGV ITALIA

Discover stories of Italian art, design, culture and life in the NGV Collection through dedicated events and resources, and explore two millennia of Italian painting, sculpture, prints and drawings, decorative arts and textiles, brought together for the first time on this site.

Supported by the Italian Australian Foundation

NGV ITALIA

Discover stories of Italian art, design, culture and life in the NGV Collection through dedicated events and resources, and explore two millennia of Italian painting, sculpture, prints and drawings, decorative arts and textiles, brought together for the first time on this site.

Supported by the Italian Australian Foundation

The focus of Rudi Williams’s camera in this photograph is not directly on the objects, works and exhibition labels as they are installed within a museum case at The Louvre. They appear obliquely but it is the reflection they cast and the mirroring of imagery in the panels of protective glass that draws our attention to what is beyond the case, to the surrounding spaces. Taken in 2017 while the artist was travelling in Europe, the image was printed – reactivated as such – in Williams’s 2021 exhibition unfixed: σκιά σκιά σκιά ombra ombra ombra shadow shadow shadow.

Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2017, Altstadt, Zurich, Switzerland</em> (2021) <!-- (recto) --><br />

cibachrome photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
93.5 x 66.5 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.166<br />
&copy; Rudi Williams
<!--149088-->

Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2014, Forgotten location</em> (2021) <!-- (recto) --><br />

gelatin silver photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
62.5 x 93.5 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.164<br />
&copy; Rudi Williams
<!--149093-->

Ideas of containment, particularly the ways objects are displayed within cultural spaces and the experience of being with them, physically, echoed throughout the unfixed series. As in this image, the photographs often make use of shadows and reflections to disrupt the picture plane – the compositions introduce ideas of chance and poetic interpretations. When displayed in the exhibition space, the photograph sits off the wall on two vertical steel poles, enhancing the understanding of them existing as ‘objects in space’. As the series title suggests, Williams embraces the idea of echoes and reverberations between her own images, and throughout art history, and a sense of looseness – of the fluidity of photography and the photographic print.

Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2017, Ansaldo Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy</em> 2021 <!-- (recto) --><br />

gelatin silver photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
64.5 x 98.0 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.165<br />
&copy; Rudi Williams
<!--149095-->

In questa fotografia, Rudi Williams non punta l’obiettivo direttamente sugli oggetti, sulle opere e sulle didascalie esposti in una teca del Louvre. Questi elementi, ripresi di sbieco, passano quasi in secondo piano: sono invece i loro riflessi e il gioco di immagini che si sovrappongono sui pannelli di vetro protettivo a richiamare la nostra attenzione su ciò che si trova al di là della teca e sugli spazi circostanti. Scattata nel 2017 durante un viaggio dell’artista in Europa, la fotografia è stata stampata – e così riattivata – in occasione della mostra di Williams del 2021, intitolata «unfixed: σκιά σκιά σκιά ombra ombra ombra shadow shadow shadow».

Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2017, Altstadt, Zurich, Switzerland</em> (2021) <!-- (recto) --><br />

cibachrome photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
93.5 x 66.5 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.166<br />
&copy; Rudi Williams
<!--149088-->

Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2014, Forgotten location</em> (2021) <!-- (recto) --><br />

gelatin silver photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
62.5 x 93.5 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.164<br />
&copy; Rudi Williams
<!--149093-->

I concetti di contenimento – in particolare le modalità con cui gli oggetti vengono esposti negli spazi culturali e l’esperienza di trovarsi fisicamente in loro presenza – percorrono l’intera serie unfixed. Come in questa immagine, le fotografie ricorrono spesso a ombre e riflessi per destabilizzare il piano dell’immagine, dando vita a composizioni aperte alla casualità e all’interpretazione poetica. Nello spazio espositivo, le fotografie sono sospese a due pali verticali in acciaio e tenute a distanza dalla parete, accentuando così la percezione della loro presenza come «oggetti nello spazio». Come suggerisce il titolo della serie, Williams accoglie l’idea di echi e rimandi tra le proprie immagini e quelle che attraversano la storia dell’arte, insieme a un senso di libertà e alla fluidità proprie della fotografia e della stampa fotografica.

Rudi WILLIAMS<br/>
<em>2017, Ansaldo Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy</em> 2021 <!-- (recto) --><br />

gelatin silver photograph on aluminium and polyethylene<br />
64.5 x 98.0 cm<br />
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne<br />
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022<br />
2022.165<br />
&copy; Rudi Williams
<!--149095-->

Rudi WILLIAMS
2017, The Louvre, Paris, France (2021)
cibachrome photograph on aluminium and polyethylene
89.5 x 59.0 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2022
2022.163
© Rudi Williams

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