Gillian Wang
Cheltenham Girls High School
UNDERTOW HALO
Photomedia
Digital photographic prints
Undertow Halo investigates perception and its ability to alter how we engage with the world around us. In making my body of work I found myself in dialogue with my surroundings. A fleeting reflection - the shift of light, or the irregularity of a shadow - was more than incidental: it became a site of meaning. My work represents these moments, making them into records. Verisimilitude is always in flux, formed as much by the audience's inner state as by the external world. Who truly inhabits a space: the body, the mind, or the subtle message of the environment itself?
My artmaking practice has been influenced by the study and interpretation of the following artists: Man Ray, Olive Cotton, Olga Karlovac, Katrin Koenning, Saul Leiter, Wolfgang Tillmans, Francesca Woodman, Antoine d'Agata, Seamus McGarvey, Robert Yeoman.
Marker's Commentary
This photographic body of work presents an interrelated series of layered images that explore memory, perception and the fleeting nature of lived experience. Through the deliberate use of long exposure photography, image compositing and intentional camera movement, familiar scenes are transformed into fragmented visual narratives. Blurred figures, shifting reflections and atmospheric lighting create a dreamlike quality, with each image appearing as a moment half-remembered, suspended between observation and recollection. Saturated reds, dramatic contrasts of light and shadow, and the juxtaposition of urban environments with traces of the Australian landscape establish a rich visual language that creates both emotional resonance and aesthetic cohesion across the series.
The sequencing and arrangement of the works creates a cinematic rhythm, guiding audiences through interconnected vignettes that unfold across interior and exterior spaces. Physical layering and partially obscured imagery reveal glimpses of what lies beneath, reinforcing themes of memory, concealment and perception. Within this context, the title Undertow Halo becomes particularly evocative, suggesting unseen emotional currents beneath moments of illumination and clarity. This body of work demonstrates sophisticated control of exposure, colour and post-production processes. The integration of movement, blur and reflection recalls aspects of the photographic practices of Olga Karlovac and Saul Leiter, while maintaining a distinctive visual identity. Technical refinement and conceptual intent work in tandem to create a compelling body of work that positions reality as fluid, subjective and continually shaped by memory, culture and personal experience.