The Pale Mirror is the most recent series of works from the illustrious photographic artist Mark Kimber. This latest body of work exudes all the elements and atmosphere of filmic drama that speaks of epic sagas from the 40’s and 50’s, although it seems the stories are somewhat elusive and blur the lines between truth and fiction, fantasy and reality. The ethereal photographic images are of small, but impressive dioramas produced by Kimber to replicate real life scenes of illuminated remote landscapes reminiscent of search and rescue disaster movies, along with eerie city buildings and suburban houses which burn brightly with white light suggestive of UFO abduction scenes. Some of the dioramas contain scenes that conjure recollections of early model sea and air craft which would dare to defy and endure unchartered terrain that could be considered unforgiving, whilst others appear as though the heavens have opened in heavenly praise. However the cinematic effects and eerie lighting deceptively serves to illuminate nothing, as era’s gone by and various landscapes are strangely obscured by indefinable yet vaguely familiar territory. The photographic images are amplified by rich opalescent colours and posses an inviting quality that inevitably draws the viewer in with their delicious quality.
The Pale Mirror series is in itself a metaphor for photography. It is generally accepted a photograph as being a reproduction of reality, but what and whose reality, which is a premise often explored by Kimber. The works in this series magnify ‘photography’s’ capacity to manipulate the truth and it’s connection to memory. Kimber created these dioramic-sets using Styrofoam, wood and plastic, then enhanced the effects with Mag-lights, LED lights and a fog machine. The miniature sets where created on the basis of historical imagery and films such as the Hindenberg disaster, the ‘Bates’ mansion from Psycho and even the house of Marge and Homer Simpson. Kimber photographed these images in colour film, with the use of a cheap Diana camera and without the use of digital manipulation.
Kimber has been exhibiting for the last 26 years since 1986 and is the Studio Head of Photography and New Media for the South Australian School of Art at UniSA. Kimber is the 2012 recipient of the this years prestigious South Australians Living Artists SALA Monograph and his series The Pale Mirror is the subject of this year’s SALA publication, which will see Wakefield Press publish a book celebrating his photographic career. The publication, simply titled Mark Kimber holds about 110 images, including a selection of portraiture, studio work and landscapes. The book has been collated and written by Jim Moss, who was the head of Visual Art Theory at UniSA Art School.
Kimber has had numerous solo exhibitions here in Australia, in addition to exhibiting internationally. Some of his most recent exhibitions include; The Cloud Chamber (2011), All That Glisters (2010), Edgeland (2008) and Sun Pictures (2007). Kimber’s work is collected in various public and private collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Artbank, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Parliament House Collection, Monash Gallery of Art, Albury Regional Gallery and the London Institute.
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