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The 3D Dancer

Article released: Thursday, 29 April, 2004

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Exhibition Opening Friday, 30 April, 6-8pm, Boutwell Draper Gallery

I see a tapestry of human bodies in my mirror.

This is how Graeme Murphy would have himself portrayed in a single art creation.  His statement shines light on a question that not many people will have considered in their lifetime. 

What sort of an image would best or most accurately reflect who you are and what you stand for? 

As Artistic Director of the Australian Dance Company it seems obvious that Graeme would visualise a portrait style artwork that paid tribute to his lifelong commitment to human movement and expression through dance.  What is less obvious, and even ironic, is that Graeme, like other people who achieve accomplishment through a representational form, does not necessarily see himself when he thinks about his life.   His vision of an artwork made for and about him would include imagery of all the dancing bodies he has used in his ballets.

Of course Graeme Murphy is not a visual artist, nor did he conceive of the idea of creating a personalised artwork of himself.

But Paula Dawson is and did.  After 25 years of making art that caters to mass viewing, art that's been bought by major museums and hung in public collections around the world, Dawson is radically shifting her approach.  She's reached a point where she wants to create a complimentary art practice, one that generates artwork for individual people. "Artwork," she says, "that represents a personal and introspective examination of one person's life."

The project, like most of Dawson's, involves the production of holograms; planed surfaces that contain three-dimensional imagery.  In this instance, each hologram will form the reflective surface of a handheld, bronzed mirror, constructed in a classic Greek style. 

A unique attribute of the holograms in this project is that no technology is needed to play the imagery back to the viewer.  By gazing into his bronze mirror, Graeme Murphy will see the reflection of visual notions of his life.  A miniature bronze-cast figure of his body becomes the mirror's handle, and the base upon which his three-dimensional holographic "portrait" sits.  

Dawson chose Murphy as the subject for her first bronze mirror because she has known him "forever".   They met in the 1970s when Dawson was studying dance.  Over the years, they have observed one another's creative achievements with admiration.

Dawson knew that with Graeme as her subject, the project would receive "fantastic empathy" and she would be working with a man "able to talk about himself and reflect".  

Each bronze mirror is meant to become a treasured personal artefact for its owner.  As such, Dawson believes her subjects need to feel as though they are able to gain greater insight into themselves by looking into their mirrors over time.  "The content of each hologram needs to be based on the person's physical and emotional attributes.  And it's important, stresses Dawson, to realise that these aspects of the person are almost impossible to quantify."  

Hence the subjects must be fully involved and devoted to the creative process.  For each mirror, Dawson plans to meet with the person and talk with them about their interests.  She will set all rules about traditional interviews aside because she intends to pinpoint intrinsic characteristics that will remain with the person as they grow and mature.

Only an artist who has reached a certain stage in her career development could feel confident about an attempt to see the inner truth of her subject.  No ounce of pretending has room in the process.  "I'm approaching this project not from the perspective of a psychologist or a theorist.  I'm not either of these things.  I'm doing this as an artist," says Dawson.  "When I'm creating these works, I'm making people focus into that tiny little space that is uniquely and solely them.  It's like Superman going to the Fortress of Solitude," it's in this space where you face yourself.  

The bronze mirror project realises a long held personal goal of Dawson's.  It's a project she hopes to conduct over the remainder of her life, to give people a glimpse of their past and future through a hologram.

Dawson's bronze mirror hologram of Graeme Murphy will be unveiled at the Boutwell Draper Gallery, 82-84 George Street, Redfern.
Exhibition Opening: 30 April, 6-8pm
Running: 28 April - 29 May

Dr Paula Dawson is the recipient of an Australia Council Grant for New Skill Development, which enabled her to learn how to etch a rainbow hologram (a hologram which requires no technology for play back) into bronze for her Bronze Mirror Project.  The Bronze Mirror Project is dedicated to Prof Steven Benton and Margaret Carnegie. Dawson is also the recipient of an Australian Research Council grant for her holographic work.