Priscilla Bracks

Class Notes:

• Colourful, vibrant, contrasts and consistent 
• Comical feel using frames
• The use of text enhances the work and intention
• One light source and use of layers digitally
• Style: she using scaffolding in the process of producing her photographs

Biography:

"Priscilla Bracks was born in northern New South Wales, Australia in 1973. She studied and practiced law in Australia, before turning to a career as a full time artist after completing a first class honours degree in photography at the Queensland College of Art in 2002. She is interested in the interplay between human nature, social-justice, law, media, and contemporary social, political and environmental issues. Priscilla has a broad practice covering a range of mediums including photography, illustration, installation and new-media art.

Since 2002 she has been creating a major project – Making the Empire Cross – a series about the relationships between images, media and the creation of truth, history and popular ideology.

Priscilla has won several awards including the Courier Mail Emerging Artist Award in 2001, and has exhibited in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Dubai, St Tropez and Lille.

In 2007 a collaborative new media installation Charmed was featured in Experimenta Playground: International Biennial of Media Arts in Melbourne, and will also be shown at the annual International Symposium of Electronic Artists, to be held this year in Singapore." (2)

Some of Her Works:

Barbierella 2006

GI Joe Vs Jihad Joe 2006

Mother of Millions 2009

Series: Making the Empire Cross (2006)

ARTIST STATEMENT

"A long, long time ago, in a land far, far away ...

 

A preacher, a hegemonic ruler, and his inappropriate use of nails threatened the tenuous balance of power in a remote outpost of the Empire. These 'troubles', which have since grown to plague the entire planet, are documented by the chronicle - Making the Empire Cross.

 

In Unleashed! - the first episode for the new millennium - the peace of the New World is shattered by the evil Jihad Joe who storms the Capital, destroying everything in his path. It seems clear that this dealer of death is merely a foot soldier in a war between two fundamentalist groups, each fighting for the supremacy of their own self-styled hegemony. But many questions remain.

 

Who is Public Enemy Number 1? And who is this two-bit dictator wading into a battle that has now raged for two millennia? A babble of speculation filled the news-wire, opinions were offered, and official statements released. But just when the truth seemed within reach, a strange silence descended upon the people...." (1)

 

Bearded Orientals Making the Empire Cross
Image Source: http://www.qcp.org.au/artists/queensland/album-183/59

Information: http://neveryetmelted.com/2007/08/30/osama-and-jesus-as-art/

Contorversially Well-Known:

• The Blake Prize is a religious and spiritual competition
• For artwork with a religious theme and reveals the human condition
• Bracks' work "Bearded Orientals Making the Empire Cross" shown above, intended to show the iconography of the Christian God mixed with the Muslim God, and we ALL have the same God
• However, this offended religions and sparked controversy (not her intent)

Source Information:

1. httppriscillabracks.com/creative.htm
2. http://priscillabracks.com/about/

The artist has made links between real and not so real, there is a connection to adding words or animation and making assumptions and opinions.

I am not sure, whether I enjoy this style, but I can appreciate it, and I can use these works to expand my ideas and consider the skill of the artist in representing her ideas. I find these images thought provoking and they allow the viewer to see a different perspective on the world.