HOTEL
SUITE
2008
Sofitel Hotel on Collins St, Sofi’s Lounge and main lobby, MELBOURNE
1 July – 2 September 2008
The Stranger’s Eye, Curated by Donna Brett, Peleton Gallery, Chippendale
1 – 24 July 2010
An ongoing theme in Anne Zahalka’s work is the exploration of the human being in the environment, one that is constructed rather than natural, and shifts between portraits taken in the comfort of one’s own habitat such as the living room, and those taken in the discomfort of ‘somewhere else’.
works
overview
A series of photographs exploring the liminal spaces of hotel rooms.
From the melancholic to the meditative, and the contemplative to the voyeuristic Anne Zahalka’s photographs add dimension to seemingly benign and ordinary moments experienced within the four walls of a hotel room. Juxtaposed against these interior spaces are breathtaking views of the city setting out themes of alienation and desire within the hotel suite. Press Release In Hotel Suite, Zahalka takes the alienating space of the hotel room and gives it a twist. The viewer of the photograph becomes the voyeur and the guest becomes the object of our gaze, seemingly trapped in the non-place of a hotel. Notions of alienation, transgression, desire and adventure are explored through the mediums of photography and film focusing on several individuals in various states of psychological unraveling that the viewer experiences through the processes of surveillance.