Benjamin Prabowo Sexton
LOOKOUTLOOK
23 September - 28 October 2023

Benjamin Prabowo Sexton works predominantly with photography, placing an emphasis on the postproduction values of the medium. Sexton utilises his photographic archive to alter images through experimental darkroom processes, such as masking and misregistration to form new compositions. His works are often monochromatic, unique state, silver gelatin prints that combine collage, photography, drawing and painting techniques to step outside the traditional conventions of photographic practice.

For LOOKOUTLOOK, Sexton has created a series of unique silver gelatin prints combining painting and documentary photography, extending from his Peaceful Interval series (2021), but here with language also introduced into the picture field. In contrast to the large scale works of Peaceful Interval (126 x 89 cm), the works in LOOKOUTLOOK are a return to the singular 8 x 10” sheet (print size: 22.5 x 18 cm). The works combine his photographs of quotidian fragments of urban and rural landscapes with subtle interventions of colour through hand-painting in oils. Just as Sexton creates a photographic archive of images from his daily life, he also gleans fragments of text from his daily encounters, collecting phrases that he has overheard, misheard, made up or read. The images have been imprinted with overlaid phrases from his archive of collected language, with a combination that is at times gently emotive and at others, drolly humorous.

Benjamin Prabowo Sexton (né Lichtenstein) is an Indonesian-born, Melbourne/Naarm-based artist. Recent solo exhibitions include Peaceful Interval, Daine Singer (2021), Touch, Daine Singer (2019), Keen, c3 (2018), Bound For Glory, a collaboration with Oscar Perry, The Honeymoon Suite (2017), Living In Oblivion, Anna Pappas Gallery (2015), Flower, Fort Delta (2015), Crescent, Neospace (2014), I Know You Will Be Happy Here, Utopian Slumps (2013) and Death Adder, Chapter House Lane (2013). Group exhibitions include The National, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2021), Index, Centre for Contemporary Photography (2020), Illusions and Allusions, Missing Persons (2018), Group Show: Second Iteration, a collaborative exhibition with Arts Project Australia, Arts Project Australia (2016), The Bends, PhotoAccess (2016), The Alchemists: Rediscovering Photography in the Age of the Jpeg, Australian Centre for Photography (2015) and Mental, Muddguts Gallery New York (2014), Sexton has also participated in the Melbourne Art Fair.

Sexton was a finalist for the 2013 Bowness Prize, and was recipient of the 2006 Kodak Salon Excellence in Photomedia award at the Centre for Contemporary Photography. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Photography) from the Victorian College of the Arts.

“The foundation of the works is documentary photography. It was my entry point into the world with a camera when I was twelve years-old. Since then, my growing photographic archive has served as both reference and source material for my image making. The introduction of colour in the form of oil paint onto my silver gelatin prints in 2019 had spawned from my long held interest and fascination with painting. The ability to add another layer (both literal and metaphorical) to the photograph has been a point of attraction for me in its capacity to further expression. The practice of masking has been central to my work since 2009 when I began masking off parts of the silver gelatin paper to expose multiple photographs from different negatives (or sometimes photograms), onto the same piece of paper. Whereas the use of masking was done by hiding parts of the photographic paper from exposure, the use of oil paint has become another method in which masking of parts of a singular image can be achieved.”

— Benjamin Prabowo Sexton

*So far, so good*, 2023
oil on silver gelatin print (unique)
18 x 22.5 cm; 52 x 42 cm framed

“The works in LOOKOUTLOOK are a return to the singular 8 x 10” sheet, with the print size being 22.5 x 18cm. Working again on the smaller scale has been a real joy. The ability to create a print from only a small portion of a negative, makes more of my archive available to work with. Segments of a broader scene which hold new resonance when I revisit them: the departure sign and its reflection at an airport terminal (Departures); the give way sign on a walking track (Yield); the badge on an old truck (Perpendicular universe).”

— Benjamin Prabowo Sexton

*Departures*, 2023
oil on silver gelatin print (unique)
18 x 22.5 cm; 52 x 42 cm framed

“The text within the works usually embodies a sentiment I want to impart, or a play on words that allows for multiple readings (When I’m around you I never feel stupid), or things I find humourous. Live forever, both a command and a wish; No subtitles in the valley, a reference to the absence of arthouse cinemas in the Latrobe Valley, set against a chimney from the Loy Yang power station.”

— Benjamin Prabowo Sexton