One Night In Footscray 2019 Artist Interview #3

Melbourne Art Review: Tell us about your practice and work for One Night In Footscray 2019, Anna. Anna Kiparis: I am a contemporary visual artist who uses the photographic medium as a platform to understanding the world. Having been drawn to what is considered valuable content within a photograph, my work focuses on explorations of the suburban surreal and delicate. Taking the ordinary from the banal to create something visually captivating. I feel the festival compliments my work incredibly well. A huge part of my subject matter over the years as a practising artist has been based around the western suburbs of Melbourne, with the Footscray landscape playing a huge part in my body of work. For One Night In Footscray, I’m presenting a photographic trilogy titled ‘Suburbanology’ presented in poster paste-up format featuring the suburban nightscape of Footscray. The posters will be exhibited on the corner Trugo Lane and Paisley St, Footscray. The challenge for me up until this point has been to narrow down the series to three images. I have always found Footscray to be visually captivating, with an abundance of buildings and homes deserving equal consideration for the final series. There are enough beautiful spots in the suburb to warrant an expanded photographic series/book based around it. The paste-up suggestion came through the ONIF festival committee, which made me consider the presentation of my work from a different perspective. When growth and new experiences are encouraged, this is always an advantage. To have the series on a wall in an outdoor capacity where pedestrians, bus travellers and the like will be able to see it is something that I am excited about. I have never had the opportunity to present work on such a large scale, so I am looking forward to how the general public will respond to it. MAR: What are some of your favourite spaces in the West? AK: Aangan Indian restaurant is my absolute favourite. Wonderful food and service. My favourite architecture is the brutalist building of Footscray Psychiatric Centre designed by an unknown architect in 1969 for the Mental Health Authority. MAR: Why did you want to be a part of ONIF? Have you been involved in the past? AK: This is the first contribution to the ONIF festival. It is a thrill for me to be able to create a series in celebration of the suburb. As an artist who originated in the west, to be recognized within a community that I revere so much remains a personal triumph. I had the honour of being part of the biennial Footscray Art Prize 2019 earlier this year, and to be included in this as well, has really been the icing on the cake. MAR: What are you looking forward to experiencing in this year’s festival? And do you have any advice for patrons visiting the festival? AK: I am looking forward to; Wonder of You by Christie Widiarto, Our Shared Humanity by Cohealth Footscray and Scenes from Footscray by Ben Davis Allocate a few hours for the festival and your visit overall. There will be so much to eat, see and experience, you’ll want to be able to enjoy it at a leisurely pace. MAR: What’s next for Anna? AK: I am currently working on a photographic series titled ‘Mother of Exiles’. It is an explorative photographic essay of the complexity, diversity, ego and harsh beauty of New York City. I spent September 2018 photographing the first part of the series and will return there in May 2020 to complete the body of work. An exhibition of the series will be open in November 2020. For more info on this year’s One Night In Footscray see the Facebook event here. One Night In Footscray 2019