Working as a collective from 2013  - 2015 Alana Hampton, Mari Hirata, Mandana Mapar and Kathy Mackey explored performative photography as individual artists by inviting audiences to consider relationships between the act of making a photograph in a particular time and space and the potential new artworks that emerge from this performance.

In their first exhibition as a collective in September 2013 - the artists synthesised aesthetic opportunities from walls of a white box space - utilising performative strategies including projections, sounds and objects to exploit the unknown elements of collaboration as a strategy for the next iteration. In the group’s second performative act, in April 2014 as part of the Queensland Festival of Photography at The Hold Artspace, the artists enfolded outcomes of the initial performance within possibilities of a more complex architectural setting, creating an increasingly interwoven dialogue of image, projection, video and sound.

Mandana Mapar’s works continue examining performative and time based interventions upon the landscape and interiors. Her images often feature geographical references and allegorical reflections upon the impact of post colonialism on contemporary identity formation and varied perceptions of popular culture. She is  most interested in the mapping of characters, arrangements and interrelations across the world; elements such as climate, elevation, population, land use and rituals informed by the complications arising out of the comingling of these individual elements.                                                                             

5 cities, 23 countries

a constant crisscrossing and longing to belong to a single continuous cultural norm

(when one does not exist)

artist finds safety in adaption, shape shifting, morphing

and flowing freely from one situation, one social interaction to another.