Cell - Prison photogrpahy exhibition by fiona Dalwood February 13, 2009

Cell is Melbourne-based artist Fiona Dalwood's latest offering of digital art photography. Following the success of her recent exhibitions 'Bound' and 'Nasty', Dalwood continues her exploration of tactile history through her documentation of prisons and correctional facilities.

Dalwood combines images from her visit to San Francisco’s infamous Alcatraz prison with those from eerily evocative institutions like the historic J-Ward asylum and gaol in Ararat. She seeks to question how we perceive insanity and criminality through a close examination of the places where some inmates spend their entire lives incarcerated.

The exhibition probes the history of institutional cruelty in the treatment of our unwanted citizens and ponders our influence on the environment, and the way in which living spaces are imbued with memory and narrative.

Dalwood's experience in having visited many now-defunct prisons and mental asylums informs her work, as she translates the inmate's undeniable sense of isolation, both physical and emotional, into an experience for the viewer to contemplate.

The exhibition will be showing at the 69 Smith Street Gallery in Fitzroy.

For gallery details visit: www.69smithstreet.com.au or www.fionadalwood.com

Official Website: http://www.fionadalwood.com