Aura (part 1)

BACKGROUND Through collaborative photo-documentary practice, Alan Hill and Kelly Hussey-Smith explore societal and ideological positions with a particular interest in transitioning relationships between economy and community. Aura combines photography and forensic techniques to examine mass-produced objects that enter our home. The prints and marks that are uncovered provide a visceral link between routine consumption and the largely invisible global systems that underpin it. CONTRIBUTION These imported (sealed) objects appear in our lives immaculately, as if untouched by human hand; an illusion created in no small part by photography. The revelation of human fingerprints on their surfaces dismantles this illusion and speaks to their repressed histories. The title is a reference to Walter Benjamin's lament at the loss of the aura of the original, as we wondered if we were experiencing the inverse (in an age where there is arguably an aura that surrounds what is 'new')? This work is both discovery and interpretation. Hidden on the surface of most 'new' things is evidence of something we intellectually understand but can normally repress and deny - the human hand in their production. Aura asks the viewer to consider more deeply the political and ethical issues inherent in contemporary consumer capitalism. SIGNIFICANCE Aura has been included in 'Surface' at POP Gallery in Brisbane (curated by Associate Professor Marian Drew with catalogue essay by Beth Jackson, July 2016), selected as a finalist in the nationally significant Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award (judged by Professor Sue Best, June 2016) at the Gold Coast City Gallery, granted the Special Recognition Award in the Memefest/Swinburne Award for Imaginative Critical Intervention (Nov 2016), presented at the Unless You Will Conference at RMIT in January, 2017 and included in 'Photo130' (curated by Associate Professor Shane Hulbert, March 2017) at the RMIT Gallery.