#AustralianBeachspace: an Instagram exhibition by Elizabeth Ellison and Mark Maxwell

#AustralianBeachspace is an unusual exhibition in that it grew from a more traditional research project, an investigation of representations of the beach in Australian cultural works. In its first iteration, the project was a collection of Instagram posts (this process is captured both informally on Liz’s website: www.lizellison.com.au and also in an academic article published in M/C Journal in August 2017). However, this exhibition is an intentional exploding and expanding of this project into the physical gallery space. Using photographs captured by Mark Maxwell, we have curated this Instagram collection of images and captions in a way that is designed to challenge and reinterpret the flat presentation of the narratives through social media. Where the text and images were of equal focus on Instagram, this exhibition plays with the physical layout, use of captions, and iconography of the platform to subvert this. The collection investigates how the removal of the narrative structure, the thematic organisation, and careful curation of the Instagram project – as well as the physical printing of the works – changes the interpretation of these iconic beach images. There is something very tactile about the beach but much of its power is linked to the conceptions we have of it in our own minds – from our memories and experiences. Visual representations of this space are often challenging and somewhat limiting, and this exhibition is interrogating that concept here.