Women at Work: Holly Granville Edge
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From using a pinhole camera made from a Milo tin in high school to her upcoming exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery, artist Holly Granville Edge has always been drawn to photography.
“I can’t not take photos,” she says. “It’s something instinctive and compulsive for me.”
Holly moved to Canberra as a child and decided at age four that she wanted to be a photographer when she got hold of her mother’s old Kodak camera and used up all the film taking pictures of flowers and her teddies. After completing her schooling, she studied Photography and Media Arts at the ANU School of Art and completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts with First Class Honours in 2011.
Holly Granville Edge
As well as pursuing her artistic career, Holly also works full-time at the National Gallery of Australia.
“It’s like having two full time occupations, and when one working day finishes, the other one starts!” she says.
She manages to keep her motivation for photography by working whenever the inspiration strikes, which can mean she is up taking photographs well into the early hours of the morning.
Holly is inspired by cinema and filmmaking and her all time art heroes include Stanley Kubrick and Lars Von Trier and she is also frequently inspired by such contrasting genres as horror films and Hollywood musicals from the 1950s. “A lot of my inspiration comes from the inner mess of my own mind and memory,” she says.
Image by Holly Granville Edge
Holly’s latest project features her Instagram account being fed onto a flat screen display in the CMAG gallery foyer.
“The screen display is a way of bringing images to the viewer in a transient, loose format; revolving images engage the senses in a way that a static work of art cannot,” Holly explains.
“It taps into what a Canberra artist is seeing and sharing on a daily basis and introduces the viewer to a different way of seeing art in a gallery. I’m hoping the audience will be able to see things they’ve never seen before, and appreciate the world through someone else’s eyes.”
Image by Holly Granville Edge
Like many photographers, Holly was initially sceptical of Instagram as an artistic medium and has experimented with the positives and negatives of the social media platform. Now, she says, “I like that when looking at Instagram, the experience is purely about appreciating the visual; there are no physical distractions to the picture, no frames, no walls, just a virtual space to view and assess within.”
When it comes to her future, the satisfaction of giving form to the images she sees in her head through photography motivates Holly to prioritise creating art in her busy life. “I want to make good, honest works of art, be a decent human being, learn as much as possible, and maybe try to get to sleep earlier.”
the essentials
What: Holly Granville Edge, taking over the foyer of CMAG with her Instagram feed
When: On now until 21 February 2016. CMAG is open from 10am to 5pm on weekdays at 12pm to 5 pm weekends.
Where: CMAG (Canberra Museum and Gallery) at the corner of London Circuit and City Square.
How much: Free
Web: www.cmag.com.au/exhibitions/holly-granville-edge
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