Then & now (NGA)

The exhibition, Australia and Constable, was part of the 2006 blockbuster (100,000 visitors), Constable: impressions of land, sea and sky, held at the National Gallery of Australia. Then & Now, is a photographic diptych depicting a view of the sky from Hampstead Heath in London that was represented by John Constable in 1822. Duxbury's manipulated photographic images represented the view on a particular day in 2002, and the view in an imaginary way, as it could have been seen by Constable 180 years previously on the same day, the day he painted the view and annotated it on the reverse. The aim of Duxbury's work was to present a moment in time just as John Constable had done 180 years previously but to present it within the context of comtemporary digital photography with its inherent capacity for representation and manipulation. The investigation played with notions of time, weather and poetic description to present work that addressed the contemporary world in terms of similarities and differences across time, space and media. Then & Now, the result of this research, was selected by curators Dr Anna Gray, (NGA) and Dr John Gage, (eminent British art historian and author) as a contemporary response to Constable's sky studies, which addressed the theme of the exhibition. Duxbury was one of two living artists invited to take part in this 16 person exhibition, (the other was landscapist Philip Wolfhagen). Their work was alongside that of John Glover, Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and others who had drawn upon, responded to and related their work to the concerns of John Constable. Duxbury's Then & Now represented a significant development in response to the subject matter and was innovative in this context, bringing the review of Cosntable's influence into new media.