Tajette O’Halloran
Tajette (b. 1980) is a conceptual documentary artist, constructing realities that are based on her personal experiences and through research and collaboration become universal narratives.
Through her practice Tajette explores the complexities of human connection, the deep seeds of generational trauma and the potential for beauty and intimacy amid adversity in Australia’s suburban landscapes.
Tajette’s work has been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally and has been shortlisted for many prestigious awards throughout her young career. She is currently exhibiting her work as a finalist in both the National Portrait Prize and the Olive Cotton Prize and has previously been selected as a winner in the British Journal of photography ‘Portrait of Humanity’ Award, a finalist in the Doug Moran Photographic Prize (2016-2019) and awarded ‘Honourable Mention’ in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize (2016).
Her work has been featured in several Australian and international art publications both in print and online such as British Journal of Photography (UK) Lens Culture (USA) PH Museum (UK) New York Times (USA) and Modern and Contemporary Art (France).
About Collection
‘In Australia’ is an unveiling of the idle facade of small town suburbia, exposing the complexity and weight of intimate relationships and the meaningful yet destructive threads that hold communities together in these seemingly dormant and futile landscapes. Using constructed realities, Tajette draws on her own adolescence to explore her instinctive connection to home and how these profound formative years have shaped her adult life. The concentrated and complex themes of adolescence are brought to light in secular frames that heave with dark undertones, bleak landscapes and internal burdens that disproportionately weigh on the young subjects featured. The listless nature of a slow paced suburban existence is marked in the stillness of the subjects, anchored in relationships where intimacy is forged through adversity and devotion is blurred with dependency.
