In this series I am interested in the ‘shudder’ one experiences when encountering a room that has resonance; that has duration; where past, present and future collapse. ‘Interiority’ is a term that traverses a number of relevant fields. In architecture it is used to describe the experience of being in an interior space; in psychology it refers to one’s interior life, what it feels like inside your head or body. I seek to fold together the collapse between ‘what it feels like inside this room’, ‘what it feels like inside my head’ and the space of the camera in that process of encounter.
-
Surveying the field, Counihan Gallery, 17 July – 16 August 2009. Artists: Alison Bennett, Angela Cavalieri, Sam Jinks, Sam Leach, Owen Leong, Wilma Tabacco and Dan Wollmering, curated by Edwina Bartlem.
-
Cavity, Warrnabool Art Gallery 2010, Centre for Contemporary Photography 2010, Horsham Regional Art Gallery 2009. This project was supported by the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria.
-
To Occupy: panoramic interiors of concrete fortifications, ANU School of Art Photospace, part of the Vivid National Photography Festival Aug 2008. Reviewed in Un Magazine #2.2 & Indesign Nov 2008.
-
Verticalism: Gothic ceilings, Alison Bennett Studio, Melbourne, Jun 2008. Reviewed in Artichoke #24.
-
Woolsheds & Shearers Quarters: photographs, Historic Houses Trust of NSW 2005, Shear Outback, Hay 2006, Peppin Heritage Centre, Deniliquin 2006 & National Wool Museum, Geelong 2007, a Shear Outback touring exhibition. Reviewed by Philip Drew, Indesign #24. Sponsored by Thylacine.
-
In Ruins, Platform2, Melbourne, Jul – Aug 2005. Featured on the cover of Arena magazine #78.
-
Inside Hill End, The Mint, Historic Houses Trust of NSW, Sydney, 2004. Reviewed by Dr Charles Rice in Architecture Australia Jul 2004
MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS
Nelson, R 2009, ‘Perpetual pirouette is a novel spin’, The Age, 22 Jul, p.14. Craswell, P 2008,‘To Occupy’, indesign magazine Nov. Knudsen, S 2008, ‘To Occupy’, un magazine, Vol.2 Iss.2, p.59 Baumbart, M 2008, ‘Verticalism’, Artichoke, #24 Bennett, A 2007, [Cover & internal images], antiTHESIS journal, Vol.17 2007. Nelson, R 2006, The Age, 15 Nov. “Alongside the documentary character of the work, the composited pieces of Alison Bennett stand out. […] Bennett’s work at Hay might be compared with Walker Evans’ Bedroom from the 1930s. “ Drew, P 2006, ‘Honouring the Landscape’ [review of Woolsheds & Shearers Quarters], Indesign magazine, Feb 2006 Bennett, A 2005, [cover images], Arena Magazine, No.78 Aug – Sep 2005. Rice, C 2004, ‘Space and image inside Hill End’, Architecture Australia, Jul 
The Age
“Normally, photography also has the stability of a rectangle; but the photographic work of Alison Bennett stitches together many frames, so that you experience a surround-vision of interior space.”
indesign
un magazine
“Her photographs depict stained and well-worn surfaces, discarded objects and litter, ghostly rooms, graffiti-covered walls or the charcoaled remains of a fireplace among many other traces of human occupation and inhabitation.”
Artichoke
“Bennett is able to listen and ‘speak’ to the people she encounters, and – through some empathetic personal alchemy – those who are absent, but whose presence might still be felt. Through this exchange she was able to move into a shared space with the subject, figuratively at first and then quite literally – with her camera in her hand.”
antiTHESIS
The Age
Indesign
“Alison Bennett’s panoramas of stitched-together photographs bring out the secret quality of these huge interiors. Their warping of the space amplifies a hidden baroque quality. The subtle distortions and curvature of space is somehow cosmic in its dimensions as though the immensity of the plain outside has forced itself inside, bending everything.”
Arena Magazine
Architecture Australia
“This idea of the interior as a particular kind of relation between the imagistic and the spatial is given new impetus in Inside Hill End, a series of photographs by Alison Bennett recently exhibited at The Mint in Sydney.”
Alison Bennett 