Jack Mannix, Misfits kiss, Noni and Trent (Faces not pictured), Redfern (2013) (detail)
Bong smoke, prostitutes, shower sex and methadone: it would be easy for some to dismiss Precious Metals as cheap shock value. But this retrospective of recent photography by Jack Mannix is a sympathetic and nuanced portrayal of exploration and experimentation.
Mannix, a Sydney-based artist and musician whose rock photography has appeared in Rolling Stone, seeks out the gritty interiors of an Australia where drug use, dingy share-houses and sex workers are the stars.
Featuring forty-five works spanning four years, there are many moments of beauty. In Kiara in the Mirror (Double Lips), Surry Hills (2013), Mannix makes clever use of a bevelled mirror to convey the vulnerability of the subject. Misfits Kiss, Noni & Trent (Faces Not Pictured), Redfern (2013) is a brilliant moment of young love, while Allie in the See-Through Lace, Darlinghurst (2013) is pure sex. By contrast, Jake at the Motel Window (Interior), Parkville (2013) is a dramatic and haunting depiction of the unknown.
While seeking out scenes of the underground and counter-culture, the subjects of Mannix’s work are often disarmingly attractive. At times, such as Gloria, Smackie and Gia in the Pucci Prints, Kings Cross (2013), it almost seems like an American Apparel advertisement or, perhaps in homage to Mannix’s former employer, a spread in Vice Magazine.
The artist mostly keeps an observer’s distance, but a few of the pieces verge on heavy-handed. Methadone Vase, Camperdown (2013) and Colin Nude in His Room, Ultimo (2013) seem a little contrived, but these do not detract from the overall strength of this collection.
Eschewing artificial lighting or digital photography, Mannix’s work feels immediate and alive as he depicts his actors and scenes in documentary style. Set almost entirely in gloomy rooms without natural light, there is intimacy without claustrophobia, and Mannix renders his subjects with affection.
While the lo-fi realism brings grittiness to this collection, Mannix also subtly explores our relationship to technology. In Lady Kiara Poses for the Camera Phone, Surry Hills (2013) we see the classic form of a reclining Hollywood beauty being photographed in a porn-style close-up by a camera phone. Similarly, Luis on the Internet, Footscray (2014) depicts a young man, shirtless and melancholy, transfixed by his laptop with screen unseen. Technology, while an enabler, is also a barrier.
Ultimately, Precious Metals is an exploration of the joyous, wasteful abandon of twenty-something partying, sex and drugs. It’s a fun ride; and, like the real thing, it will leave you wanting more.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.
Precious Metals
Jack Mannix
Curated by Sophie Kitson
Centre for Contemporary Photography, George St, Fitzroy
Next Wave Festival
www.nextwave.org.au
28 March – 25 May
