The New Zealand
Herald
August 6th 2000
Peter Simpson
Judith Anderson's enterprising group
show provides a glimpse of what some of the best practitioners
of past decades are up to. Rebecca Swan (a young photographer
exploring issues of gender identity).
back to top
The New Zealand Herald
July 31st 2000
T. J. McNamara
Critic's choice. Photography at
Judith Anderson gallery. The big names in New Zealand
art photography are here- Peryer, Webster, Aberhart, Schoon
and Swan.
back to top
Sydney Morning Herald
29th February 2000
By Robert McFarlane
 Rebecca
Swan makes her own, more restrained claim that she "Challenges
the judgements that we all hold about those who are different
to us", and dares us to act on our desires.
Swan presents her photographs in a large metal and plastic
book, titled Assume Nothing. In it she interleaves portraits
of 40 people from around the world with their interviews,
creating a detailed tapestry of sexual difference. Swan's
portraits are accomplished, unpretentious and use a visual
grammar ranging from muscular, finely lit nudes to diffuse,
romantic almost Steiglitz-like observations.
back to top
Sydney Star Observer
February 24th 2000
By Daniel Mudie
Rebecca Swan's installation is
a series of three large black and white portraits, equipped
with a book and a CD ROM. Swan's images are documentary
portraits of friends and acquaintances that dismay any
notion that gender is fixed, and instead expose the body
as a site of technology.
Cultural theorist Donna Haraway would probably dub Swan's
subjects "Cyborg" as they effectively illustrate
the shifting boundaries between body and machine, between
culture and nature.
back to top
Capital Q Weekly, Sydney
February 11th 2000 Issue 380
By Mark McIntosh.
 New
Zealand artist Rebecca Swan deals with themes of gender
and people who cannot be easily categorised. Her work at
Mobile includes a CD ROM installation.
The images are of people whom Swan has interviewed. One
of these individuals began as a straight woman who became
a lesbian, then a man who was heterosexual and finally
became a gay man.
back to top
The Listener, New Zealand
September 7th 1996
By Jacqueline Haydn
How can you be gentle and understand
about cancer? In these 19 black and white images and eight
colour photographs of her personal confrontation with
cancer of the lymph system, Rebecca Swan embodies her
name in full image and spirit: graceful, unflinching.
With a tumour the size if a teacup, the 23-year-old endured
the blitzkrieg of chemicals and radiation and emerged
months later to distil the experience in words and pictures.
She puts up no barricades against herself: anger, pain,
fear, depression are purged by the light from within.
back to top |
