Editorial Reviews

20 pages (unpaginated), with color photos throughout. With 2-page essay on the artist. American-born Julie Firth has lived in New Zealand since 1989. She has established a reputation both here and in America as a photographer whose work is at the forefront of feminist art. She situates her art practice in a psychoanalytic framework, exploring a surrealist aesthetic and conveying a surrealist essence of the erotic in her challenging and often confrontational scenes that are reminiscent of dreams. The works explore both the pre-Oedipal and Oedipal dynamics imprinted in childhood, the transitions between these two dynamics in the development of the human subject, and the ways in which they shape our experience of desire in later life. Firth is her own model for all the works in this exhibition. This has been challenging from a practical perspective in terms of setting up the shoots and ensuring her costumes and props are on hand.