Eye to Eye

Julie Millowick OAM and Jody Haines

Roslyn Smorgon Gallery,

Footscray Community Arts Centre

4 February – 20 March 2021

Eye to Eye is a challenge. A Gaze. An agreement. A question. A vision forward, reflecting on the past. Explored through the lens' of two women, Eye to Eye traverses 45 years living under the signpost 'woman' - challenging and negating the social and the political un/truths of our stories and times.

The starting point for both artists is 1975. '75 was International Women's year, the start of the International Decade for Women (76-85) and the United Nations Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and Their Contribution to Development and Peace. '75 was also the beginning of artist Julie Millowick's celebrated visual journey, creating an "emotional statement, about what women were actually like, in real day-to-day life, the ordinary situations" (Millowick, 2019). Eye to Eye includes images from Millowick's archive from 1975 to 1985, displaying a collection of quietly considered, yet commanding black and white photographs. Expanding the conversation to contemporary times, artist Jody Haines, in collaboration with local women, presents a collection of new portraits exploring feminist perspectives and where women see themselves positioned now in 2020.

Together these artists have co-create a quiet statement about both our contemporary and past 'truths', visually symbolising a bridge for future consideration on gender and representation. In the words of Sara Ahmed "This is not theory, this is politics", Eye to Eye, we arrive together to explore and imagine this narrative.

Presented as part of PHOTO 2021 International Festival of Photography.

Footscray Community Arts Centre