I found this really strange at the beginning, after seeing her work without hearing her speak...
I am not the biggest fan of photography, maybe because I don't understand it so well..
well here goes my attempt:
Rebecca Hobbs presents 'humour' through absurdity which is found in the everyday live..
Coming from the outback in australia she had some works which were made there... One that I liked, was a man falling down onto an airbed in the middle of a desert, which is very absurd!
She explains that she has found and dug up absurdity in ready made situations: And I suppose for every viewer a different level exists at which that work triggers humour...
The other point she made was bringing out the absurdity in getting pleasure from constant striving to find meaning - so she strives to put humour in her work...she also talked of how 'we' set these standards for ourselves that we seem to constantly fail to meet (in striving for these standards)...
Hobbs explained that absurd humour is between ironic humour and on the otherside is slapstick humour...
Peter Shand in his essay 'walking backwards for christmas' states "I think it pertinent, then, that Hobbs’ work is devoid of irony, that it’s consciously generous and sincere. It’s part of how irony operates that it requires an assumed position of privilege in order to get the joke. For her, that reflects on the habit of some modes of practice to require understanding of structural codes in order for the work to be made or responded to."
She shows a light-hearted attitude towards sex 'that reflects back at us our own peccadilloes or repressions' (Peter Shand), this is shown in her work, Adam looks up Jennifer's skirt, which is clearly set up: it is very absurd, and I think is maybe dissing the morality of society.
My favourite work was 'Tethered Horse', The composistion was really effective, which is a 'frontal' shot, and she uses darkness very effectively, which even this feature in itself I think creates absurd 'humour', as it would be fully not normal for a horse to be tied up to a tree in the middle of the night, but hey, maybe it's just one of those things you see in the middle of a desert?
who I thought will win the Walters prize: Fiona Connors: Because I found her work the most intriguing and unique, to be honest, I was really confused by it and couldn't figure out if it was her art work or not, so puzzling :)
