(left) 間 (Ma) exhibition view. 3331 Arts Chiyoda, October 2014.
(center) 'Shibuya-Omotesando' 2014. C-type print.
(right) 'Ogawamachi' 2014. C-type print.

Profile

Anna Higgins graduated with honors from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2013. Her practice highlights the alien and unknown in the world around us and distorts visible aspects of reality, sitting on the line between representation and abstraction as well as fiction and fact. Themes also include cinema, modernism, cubism, and more. She has worked mainly in sculpture, photography, and painting while playfully combining and expanding upon these and other mediums. Her most recent exhibition "Higgs Boson" explored the philosophical power of quantum physics and how issues addressed by science fiction can be translated into the making of contemporary art.

Activities in Japan

Following an open studio, Anna's exhibition presented new photographic and sculptural works that collide and layer her own perspective of contemporary Japan with cinematic representations of Tokyo in previous eras.

The works have absorbed a broad range of influences into its process that range from the subjective vision of Akira Kurowsawa or the stillness and contemplation of Yasujirô Ozu. Visual influence is also drawn from science fiction perspectives applied to Tokyo in films such as Chris Marker's Sans Soleil (1983) or the methodology of Tokusatsu film. Higgins also extrapolates on collage methods in Japanese design and the graphic quality of woodblock printing. As we explore Higgins' restructured alternative of Japan's aesthetic past, we are asked to reflect on how the weight of history in Japan sits within its technological present.