Pat­ti Smith
Pho­tog­ra­phy & Installation

LAND250
Aus­tralian Pre­mière
Pat­ti Smith began to take pho­tographs in 1967 for use in col­lages. In 1995, she returned to
pho­tog­ra­phy: ​“The imme­di­a­cy of the process was a relief from the long involved process of
draw­ing, record­ing or writ­ing a poem.” Many of her pho­tographs embody sig­nif­i­cant per­son­al
mean­ing, oth­ers serve as a visu­al record of her well-trav­elled life. This exhi­bi­tion is a rare
col­lec­tion of her pho­to­graph­ic work.

THE CORAL SEA
Aus­tralian Pre­mière
The Fes­ti­val presents Pat­ti Smith’s instal­la­tion The Coral Sea, which includes pho­tographs by
her long­time col­lab­o­ra­tor and friend, Robert Map­plethor­pe. These instal­la­tion works include
visu­al records com­pris­ing very per­son­al arti­facts and objects – offer­ings from her life.
5 pho­tographs by Robert Map­plethor­pe with text by Pat­ti Smith
Film: Jem Cohen
Gui­tar: Kevin Shields
Pro­duc­tion: Ste­fan Righi
The Coral Sea is on loan from the Fon­da­tion Carti­er, Paris.
Robert Mapplethorpe’s pho­tographs appear cour­tesy of The Robert Map­plethor­pe Foun­da­tion, New York City.

THE INFIR­MARY

MEL­BOUR­NELAND
World Pre­mière
While in Mel­bourne, Smith will cre­ate a place-spe­cif­ic project, Mel­bour­neland, espe­cial­ly for the Fes­ti­val.
Respond­ing to her sur­round­ings she will cre­ate a unique record of Mel­bourne with an accu­mu­la­tion of
images added to Anna Schwartz Gallery each day​.As part of its Pat­ti Smith res­i­den­cy, the Fes­ti­val presents an exhi­bi­tion of her pho­to­graph­ic work drawn from pieces cre­at­ed between 1967 and 2007, offer­ing audi­ences a rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to explore the pho­tog­ra­phy of the punk poetress.

Pat­ti Smith began to take pho­tographs in 1967 for use in col­lages. In 1995, she returned to pho­tog­ra­phy, using a vin­tage Polaroid Land 250, and found solace in the cre­ative expres­sion of the art­form when she was grief-strick­en at the untime­ly loss of her hus­band, her broth­er and some of her dear­est friends. ​“The imme­di­a­cy of the process was a relief from the long involved process of draw­ing, record­ing, or writ­ing a poem.”

Many of Smith’s pho­tographs, which she refers to as, ​‘relics of my life … sou­venirs of my wan­der­ings”, embody sig­nif­i­cant per­son­al mean­ing: Robert Map­plethor­pe’s slip­pers, Vir­ginia Woolf’s bed, Her­mann Hes­se’s type­writer and Arthur Rim­baud’s uten­sils. Oth­ers serve as a visu­al record of her well-trav­elled life.