John McRae Photography & Studio
Sydney Professional, Commercial & Corporate Photography
John McRae in conversation with Rebecca Wilson
Link to pod-cast with John McRae about his Spot the Arab portrait project and exhibition in Ballarat. Interview by artist and communications officer Rebecca Wilson, as part of her Western Connections programme.
Interview conducted in Sydney: February 12, 2018. 25 minutes.
John McRae will exhibit his latest body of work Spot the Arab for the first time in Australia. Images from McRae’s Spot the Arab series were shown in June 2017 in Rome, at the cutting-edge Italian gallery Il Ponte Contemporanea. This exhibition took place in the centre of the “Eternal City”, close to the Vatican, in the heart of the Jewish Ghetto.
Name: Spot the Arab – John McRae
Venue: Backspace Gallery, Ballarat, Australia
Dates: Exhibition runs from March 1-18 , 2018
Opening Thursday March 1, from 6pm – 8pm
Backspace Gallery hours: Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 4pm, The artist will be present for the duration of the exhibition.
The closing weekend of the exhibition will coincide with Harmony Fest (March 17-26), White Night Ballarat (Saturday March 17, from 4pm to 2 am) and Ballarat Cultural Diversity Week (March 14 – 25).
Note: the Backspace Gallery will remain open from 4pm to 2am on March 17, as part of White Night Ballarat.
Address: Huyghue House,
Alfred Deakin Place (Camp Street) Ballarat
Owned and operated by the City of Ballarat Arts and Cultural Development team
The City of Ballarat respectfully acknowledges the Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung people – traditional custodians of the land.
Artist Statement:
Spot the Arab challenges the viewer to identify who among the line-up identifies as Arab. I query if this is such a relevant question in the first place. How complicated life becomes when such things are treated as important.…maybe it’s more interesting to just experience the actual person in front of you, no matter how they are “dressed”, and to leave it at that.
Spot the Arab is a project based on portraiture, as a summary of various themes, ideas and concepts aligned to how I reflect upon contemporary issues of religion, race, gender, orientation, nationality and freedom. I present this work in a game-like yet very serious manner. It is a topical celebration of diversity, with a powerful message about tolerance.
Following 9/11 we have seen a growth in the stigma surrounding the idea of Arab/Muslim/Middle-Eastern, driven by incessant, hounding imagery of the “terrorist”. I resent this repeated, visual conditioning, which occurs every time you turn on the television or open a newspaper. It is easy to make fake computations and lose your ability to comprehend the subtleties and differences…so that you may no longer see the actual person standing in front of you. How often does this occurs in all areas of our society? How often do we close down communication as a result? I decided to take this particular stereotype and use it to draw attention to the insanity of discrimination.
This show has been built around a photo installation, a retrospective of my portraits since 2002 on the theme of the illusions and stereotypes of what is an Arab today. It looks at a selection of people I have photographed over the past decade in numerous countries and from different religious and ethnic backgrounds. In most cases I have imposed Middle-Eastern clothing onto my subjects (who may otherwise wear jeans and a t-shirt) and have asked them to enact the role of what they consider an Arab might be. The sitters include men, women and transgender people in the “guise” of Arabs and dressed accordingly. Spot the Arab focuses on social fictions of femininity/masculinity, recurring themes in my work.
At the end of the portrait session I asked each subject to exactly describe how they identify, since in this way, we can over-ride the preconceptions of imposed racism and prejudice….and whether they identify as “Arab” in any way. This gives additional weight to the complexity of each portrait.
For example, Ali, a Lebanese-Australian national raised in Paris but who is currently based in London, has frequently posed for me over the past decades. He provides a sharp description of how he defines his own identity.
“My ethnicity is Arab, I see myself as Semitic too. I also have Persian lineage,” Ali explains. “Gender is very fluid in the male body that I adore, so I project the idea of Macho Male. My religion: Agnostic, Neo-pagan, Baphomet Worshipper, Hermetic Qabalist, Neo-Platonic, Sacred Whore (I go as ‘London Arab Master’ these days). I love Shia-Islam too.”
I tend to create works in series, often spanning different continents and time-lines. This introduces a multi-faceted and shifting perspective, never a single cultural viewpoint. My specific fascination is to use my camera to break down stereotypes and visual codes, more important today than ever. In my portraits, I try to capture sly or hidden messages, and then juxtapose these with more blatant aspects of drama, styling and emotion, whether it is authentic or staged. It is always about intimacy versus theatricality.
John McRae, 2017
Spot the Arab with be running with a number of community based events which are taking place in Ballarat concurrently:
– White Night Ballarat (Saturday March 17, from 4pm to 2 am)
– Harmony Fest (March 17-26)
– Cultural Diversity Week (March 14 – 25).
“SELFIE STAND”
Spot the Arab will challenge the viewer to identify who of the various models, dressed in Middle Eastern costume, actually identify as Arab. Viewers will also be invited to participate in the SELFIE STAND, an area in the gallery reserved for those who wish to take a selfie dressed in the Middle Eastern clothing (provided) in front of an Arabian backdrop. The viewer is then encouraged to post this image on social media with the hashtag #spotthearab. Once posted, the artist will print the resulting images and then adhere them to a wall of the Backspace Gallery, so that the visitors can become part of the exhibition.
For further information about the exhibition go to:
www.johnmcrae.com/spot-the-arab
See also the on-line article from “Genius Magazine” (European based arts and culture magazine)
http://www.genius-online.it/?p=18540
I am pleased to announce that GENIUS People Magazine in Italy has published an article about my ongoing Spot The Arab project, aligned to my exhibition at Galleria Il Ponte Contemporanea in Rome.
GENIUS People Magazine is a topical, bilingual publication based in Trieste in northern Italy, appearing both on-line and in print form, guided by Editor-in-Chief Francesco La Bella, and Project Manager Mariaisabella Musulin. It focuses primarily on contemporary arts and culture.
Click on the following link to read the article, written by Jonathan Turner:
http://www.genius-online.it/?p=18540
It’s that time of year again……..
MMXVI – Matthew Mitcham Annual Portrait
Every year I photograph Matthew Mitcham, Australia’s gold-medal Olympic diver, award-winning cabaret performer and television entertainer, in my studio.
Each portrait is taken under similar conditions. MMXVI marks the 9th portrait and the 9th year of this ongoing series.
Will Matthew Mitcham ever age…is the question on my mind?
The complete sequence can be seen at
https://www.johnmcrae.com/exhi…/annual-matthew-mitcham-portraits/
The series is printed by the artist in an edition of 9, with 2 artist proofs, and is available for purchase.
Contact: John McRae mb: 0419 619 161 e: john@johnmcrae.com w: www.johnmcrae.com
The end of the year is fast approaching and I’m confronting last minute jobs to be done, absolutely before the end of the year. Rationally, I know it’s just another day….but there’s this burning urge to finish certain tasks, leaving them in the year 2014, so that I may have a clean slate to start the New Year, a fresh.
One of those matters is the annual portrait of Matthew Mitcham. I have been documenting Matthew for quite a few years now, almost 9. Wow, how time flies! At some point in the year I ask Matt to sit for a formal portrait for the purpose of adding a new image to the line up.
This portrait takes the form of a cropped head shot. It is shot in a similar fashion each year, without being clinically precise in it’s recreation as I want to leave a small margin for variation and creative interpretation. So a few days before the New Year I am releasing the 2014 version of this series (pictured below). For the whole series see the main web site under the tab, “Exhibition”.
MMXIV, 2014, Pigment inkjet on cotton rag, 112cm x 78cm, Edition of 9 (2AP)
If you’re anywhere near Star Casino over this month, drop in and have a look at the 24 finalist images from the “Shoot The Chef” competition, on exhibition in the foyer area.
Ali & Osso Buco John McRae, 2012 (Critic’s choice winner 2013 Shoot The Chef)
Finalist’s images on exhibition at: The Star, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont 2009 from October 10 to October 31
Ali & Osso Buco wins the 2013 “Shoot The Chef Competition”
I received fabulous news on Tuesday. I knew that I had been selected as a finalist in this years “Shoot The Chef”, what I didn’t know, until I read the paper, was that I had won! I always assumed the winners of these types of competitions were gently informed before hand. I wasn’t…. and when I received a text from my friend, Domonic, I merely said, “you can”t believe everything you read in the newspaper”.I’m happy to say it’s true and I’m going to collect my prize money on Thursday night at the opening of the “Good Food Month” at the Sydney Opera House.
This image is my interpretation of what a contemporary chef might look like, and a parody on the concept of fine dining. It is part of a series of photographs I have been working on with the Sydney chef, Robert Zampogna. Robert was the Executive Chef at the East Lakes Golf Course for about 10 years and last year he approached me with the concept to produce a cook book together, titled Hungry. Ali & Osso Buco, as the name suggests, is our visual rendition of Rob’s Italian dish, Osso Buco. Ali plays the role of the inverted aristocrat beautifully. He is seated, bare-chested, alone at a table, his napkin to one side as he chews his candle-lit meal. He stares provocatively at the viewer. The setting is “grand industrial”, and the backdrop is a shot I captured on a recent visit to the disused White Bay Power Station.
I’ve always enjoyed seeing the images each year from “Shoot The Chef”. I like the subject of food and the idea of the chef, it showcases some amazing creativity and this year I decided to be part of it…and I can tell you I’m glad I did.
Thanks to Ali and Rob for their brilliant contribution and collaboration to this win.
