Kendal HEYES

From a Shipwreck 3 from the series From a Shipwreck 1 - 9 1985
Cibachrome prints
630 x 870 mm each
Collection of the Edmiston Trust, New Zealand National Maritime Museum

From a Shipwreck 1-9 was first shown at Artspace in Sydney in a group show called Photodramas. The Australian National Gallery bought the smaller images in 1985 and included the suite in "Recent Australian Photography: From the Kodak Fund". In 2001 the suite featured in the first Auckland Triennial, Bright Paradise - Exotic History and Sublime Artifice.

Heyes says, "the series generally follows the 'narrative' of the poem … Mallarme's "Un Coup de Des" (A Dice Throw)" and quotations collected from the writings of Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes.

"Like one who keeps afloat on a shipwreck by climbing to the top of a mast that is already crumbling. But from there he has a chance to give a signal leading to his rescue" - Walter Benjamin.

"Drifting occurs whenever I do not respect the whole and whenever, by dint of seeming driven about by language's illusions, seductions, and intimidations, like a cork on the waves, I remain motionless, pivoting on the intractable bliss that binds me to the text (to the world)." - Roland Barthes.

Curator Allan Smith has aptly described them as "pseudo film-stills relying on simple props and back-projection of imagery which sets the stage for an actor to appear as if immersed in the scene. From a Shipwreck constructs a fragmented and theatrical narrative of the 19th century maritime romantic sublime"

KENDALL HEYES was born in Auckland in 1952 and now lives and works in Sydney.

Studied Art History and English at Auckland University from 1976-1978, and painting, sculpture and film studies at Elam School of Fine Arts from 1977-78. In 1980 he commenced his studies at the Sydney Collage of the Arts, receiving a BA Visual Arts in 1982 and a Graduate Diploma (Photography) in 1983.

He has exhibited his photographic works since 1981. He was the recipient of a Visual Arts Board project grant in 1986 and in 1987 he was the awarded the Francs Hodgkins Fellowship, Otago University, Dunedin. 1992 he completed a Masters of Fine Arts, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales. He is currently undertaking a PhD in experimental drawing at the University of New South Wales College of Fine Arts.

His work is represented in public and private collections locally and internationally.