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This site requires Adobe Flash Player to be viewed correctly. Please download here Strong creates works which explore our perception of what is plausible, ones that skirt the boundaries of the likely in order to ascertain how we define and respond to the ‘reality’ of our surroundings. Strong’s creation of these distinctive panoramas is a complex technical process, with the various elements already configured in the artist’s mind before he begins. He defines his work as a photographic composite, in as much as it involves the layering of different features into a cohesive visual statement. Strong is intrigued by dreams and constructs of memory, the way in which our interpretation of events is often influenced by previous experiences or history. The idea of previous events being somehow ‘imprinted’ on a particular space, dilapidated and abandoned buildings overrun, or ‘reclaimed’ by the environment, reflect an intermingling of past and present Strong finds particularly resonant. This well-honed ability to conceptualise scenarios and divergent possibilities, to envisage the circumstances of transformation and change, to address notions of self and belonging, permeate Strong’s creative centre. “I don’t feel so concerned anymore that my work needs to be immediately comprehensible”, Strong reflects, “I’m consciously allowing concepts to evolve and develop in a less linear fashion. I’m enjoying the possibilities presented by a more enigmatic or ambiguous tone... where you only get glimpses of what may be a more encompassing psycho-drama...”. Strong will continue to propel us into his hallucinatory ‘dreamscapes’ of sensory overload and indelible imagery, asking us to decipher what is artifice, and what is poised on the margins of the possible.” Inga Walton Born: Vietnam, 1974 Simon Strong has a bachelor of Graphic Design from the National School of Design. Strong debuted in 1999 in collaboration with Charmaine Hardy, under the name Hardy and Strong, the pair held seven successful solo shows together before he embarked on his solo career in 2005. Strong has been included in numerous group shows including FX in Contemporary Photography, McClelland Galler, TarraWarra Museum of Art, 2007 and Light Sensitive: Contemporary Australian Photography From the Loti Smorgon Fund at the National Gallery of Victoria, 2006-07). Strong has been shortlisted for the Prometheus Visual Arts Award, Queensland the William and y and Sculpture Park 2008; Phantasia, at the Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney 2008; Snap Freeze: Still Life NowWinifred Bowness Photography Prize and the Tenth Hutchins Art Prize. His work has already found its way into important public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery Victoria, Artbank the Westin Hotel in Melbourne, and the Rockhampton Art Gallery, Queensland. CONTACT: Simon Strong |