Black Room

Black Room is a compelling and mysterious series of eight large scale, multi-panelled photographs. The series is a culmination of a six year exploration of historical medical practices. The images present a conundrum to the viewer as they immediately suggest confinement and torture. But, in fact, they depict the use of now obsolete medical implements and techniques – instruments of healing. In these photographs, perhaps their bleakest but strongest images to date, we are confronted by images of seemingly hapless victims, imprisoned outside their normal environments. These fragile, alienated individuals are disempowered as much by their ailments as the medical apparatus designed as their ‘cure’. The overwhelming impression common to the series is a sense of fear and abandonment; dislocation and disorientation.

Rose Farrell was born in Brisbane in 1949. In 1971 she was awarded a Bachelor of Applied Science from the Queensland Institute of Technology in Brisbane. In 1986 she completed a Diploma of Photography (Fine Art) at Photography Studies College, Melbourne.

George Parkin was born in Corowa, New South Wales, in 1949. In 1983 he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Graphic Design) from Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne.

Sourced from: Black Room: Photographs by Farrell and Parkin, National Gallery of Victoria, 1995