Anne Ferran

Biography

Anne Ferran came to prominence in Australian contemporary art in the 1980s with the photographic series Carnal Knowledge and Scenes on the Death of Nature. Her early work, influenced by theories of femininity and representation, has been widely exhibited, collected and reproduced.

In 1995 she began working on aspects of Australia's colonial past, probing it for gaps and silences, especially around the lives of anonymous women and children. Since then she has worked extensively with museum collections, photographic archives and historic sites in Australia and New Zealand, undertaking major projects with the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and the National Museum of Australia, where she was inaugural Artist-in-Residence in 2002.

In 1999 she was awarded a NSW Women and Arts Fellowship to work on a little-known archive of patient photographs from the 1940s. The resulting photographs and artist books were exhibited in 2003 as INSULA and 1–38.
In 2001 she began a long-term visual investigation of two former female convict prison sites in Tasmania. This work, which comprises photographs, videos and textiles, culminated in The ground, the air, a major solo exhibition held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in December 2008.

Research

Anne Ferran works with the often-meagre residues of Australia's colonial past, paying particular attention to the lives of women and children.
"I might start with a museum collection or an archive or a site, but it's less the history I'm interested in than the historical record and how it comes down to us.

Especially I'm drawn to the gaps, for what else they reveal."
Intellectually and emotionally engaging, sometimes austere, her photographs have explored histories of incarceration in prisons, asylums, hospitals and nurseries. They play with invisibility and anonymity, and are often haunted by things unseen. In addition to digital and analogue photography (including large-scale photograms), her work encompasses video, installation, textiles and the production of artist books.

Recent Exhibitions

Higashikawa Photo Festa Higashikawa Photography Museum, Japan, 2009 - WINNER 2009 Higashikawa International Photographer Award

The ground, the air Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart December, 2008

Clemenger Contemporary Art Award, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne,
2006

Twice Removed, Maitland Regional Gallery, Maitland, 2004

2nd Sight: Australian Photography in the National Gallery of Victoria , The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne , 2003

INSULA, SCA Galleries, Sydney, 2003

Spill, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2002

Photographica Australis, Sala de Exposiciones del Canal de Isabel II, Madrid
2002

Lost to worlds, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne and Stills Gallery, Sydney, 2001

Flock, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, NZ, 2001

Contemporary Photo-Art from Australia, Neuer Berlin Kunstverein, Berlin,
2000

Publications

The ground the air (conference paper), Association of Art Historians Conference, London, 2008

Anne Ferran: photography, archived at www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/webcasts/global_photography/asia_pacific/default.jsatwww.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/webcasts/global_photography/asia_pacific/default.js
Global Photography Now: the Asia Pacific symposium, Tate Modern, London, 2006

In the ground on the air (conference paper),Rethinking the past: experimental histories in the arts conference, UTS, Sydney, 2006

Disappearing into the photograph (conference paper), Art Association of Australia and New Zealand conference, USyd, 2005

Love, loss and photography: talking to the photographs of Margaret Michaelis (guest lecture), National Gallery of Australia, 2005

'Empty', Photofile, 2002

'The body in the library', Art Monthly, 2000

'Longer than life', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Art, 2000

'Photography’s still living body, warm to the touch', Blair French (ed.), Photo Files: an Australian Photography Reader, Power Institute & Australian Centre for Photography, 1999

Research Supervision

David Watson, PhD, 'Walking With Cars'

Alex James, MFA

Rowena Wallace, MFA, 'History Bearing'

Leah McPherson, MVA

Georgina Koureas, MVA

Ashley Collis, Hons, 'The road to Provenance'

Ella Condon, Hons

Hayley Hill, Hons, 'Two people who could do anything with their lives'

Zoe Oakes, Hons

Awards & Grants

2009 Higashikawa International Photographer Award
2008 Australia Council, Visual Arts/Craft Fund, New Work Grant
2005 Australia Council Visual Arts/Craft Fund, London Studio Residency
2005 Australia Council, Visual Arts/Craft Fund, New Work Grant
2003 Gold Coast Ulrick Schubert Photographic Art Award
2002 National Museum of Australia, Spill Artist in Residence
2001 Artists at Work residency, Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin
1999 NSW Ministry for the Arts, Women and Arts Fellowship
1999 Australia Council, Visual Arts/Craft Fund, New Work Grant
1996 Australia Council Barcelona Studio residency

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