anonymous waves, Crime Scene, 2013, photomontage
I have always liked alleyways. The paradox of escape or entrapment. What secrets do they hold? This work began with some snapshots taken while walking along the 'avenue of consumerism' that is the main street of Burleigh Heads on Australia's Gold Coast. A young skater weaving down the street with mobile phone glued to his ear was the inspiration for the poem 'APPology' a few posts back...
The street is largely made up of cafes and boutiques, the cafe clientele often looking as if they had stepped straight out of the shop windows as they order their flat whites. The second paradox: the unadorned alleyways intersecting with the manicured world of display and desire.
But there is an even more sinister side to this work that was prompted by the publicity surrounding the Jill Meagher tragedy (for my overseas readers a young woman on her way home from a work 'do' was dragged into an alleyway, raped and murdered. Her attacker, a serial offender, in hindsight should never have been walking the streets).
It struck me that the desire to be something other than ourselves that is at the heart of the cliched world of fashion marketing, and the implied objectification of women ultimately creates the environment that breeds the kind of person who knows the difference between right and wrong, but simply doesn't care. Fashion victim? Dressed to kill? She was asking for it? Think about it next time you pass a boutique, or an alleyway...