Rosslynd Piggott : After Dark, It’s a Snap

• Herald Sun

When artist Rosslynd Piggott began daily visits to a digital photo booth in Chinatown, she attracted the interest of the booth operator.

“I was usually standing in the queue of young lovers waiting to have their photos taken, and there I was always going in alone every day for a period of about two months,” says Piggot.

“I showed him some of my work and the next day he had done some of his own work which he showed me, and so we developed a type of friendship via the booth.”

Piggott’s reason for the photo booth trips were purely mercenary. She was searching for that perfect image to include in her light-box installation, titled Storm, for the Citylights project in Centre Place.

The booth provided a series of different landscapes as background and Piggott placed herself in various places to imply motion.

“Given the flippant technique involved, I think the images are really quite romantic and beautiful,” she says.

“For me photographs were quite emotionally cathartic because I have had a personally stormy year, and in many ways these images are landscaped self-portraits.”

The series of four frosty images are best viewed after dusk when the full effect of the lightbox can be appreciated.

Now in its fifth year, the Citylights project is an artist-run, 24-hour outdoor exhibition space established by artist Andrew Mac in 1996.

“I thought that people were very familiar with the concept of outdoor advertising, and we felt that bus-shelter advertising was very effective, so that gave me the idea to apply the medium to art”, Mac says.

A curator from the National Gallery of Australia has attended the show and is considering buying the works.

Another art project that will transform city lanes over the next eight months is the City of Melbourne Laneway Commissions Project.

Starting with Heffernan Lane, which runs between Lonsdale and Little Bourke Streets, and Brien Lane, which runs beween Bourke and Little Bourke streets, the lanes project will include art which is site-specific.

Heffernan Lane features an installation of mysterious street signs and restaurant advertising.

Brein Lane will become an enormous candy-striped graph about Melburnians.

The Storm exhibition, about mid-way along Centre Place in the city, until December 16.

Writer: Felicity Allen