Aaron Webber

Ground Work, 2022

This series of photographs records the unique world of the Subiaco Tigers Wrestling Club amid the demolition and development of the area surrounding their practice centre. The Subiaco Tigers display a steadfastness and commitment to their craft that remains unyielding, even as their environment transforms around them. The wrestling moves pictured are calculated and controlled, yet there are also many reactive and explosive bursts of power in wrestling that are more difficult to capture as still images. This has parallels to the nature of change—a natural process that can be so incremental it is barely noticeable, until you zoom out and notice the impact of time. By extension, this work also serves as a reminder of the importance of the unique subcultures that exist within our larger society. Progress can sometimes feel like it comes at the expense of tradition but in the midst of necessary change in order to meet the needs of a growing population, it is also important to reflect on the multitude of stories and groups that make a place what it is. Recording is an act of preservation that can celebrate and reflect the narrative of a place in flux. Some things—like the old boiler house and chimney at the former Princess Margaret Hospital site, pictured here—remain, and serve as tangible connections to the past. Through this, we can better understand and appreciate our shared histories and cultural identity.

About the artist

Billy Reeves

Untitled, 2022–23

From the edges, down the ventricles to the half-hourly heartbeat and screech of the metal slug as it pauses to collect its passengers. Subiaco: a suburb on the fringes of the city, a transient zone, once bustling and diverse but somewhat subdued by the hands of gentrification. In making these images, the artist initially followed the perimeter of the city and was inevitably drawn to its eastern end, along Hay Street and its side streets to the area around the central train station. The images juxtapose the well-kept, tree-lined avenues for which the suburb is known and the more frenetic streets of the business district. What emerges is the sense of a place for everyone.

About the artist

Claudia Caporn

Growing Pains, 2022–23

With a desire to unearth quiet stories, Caporn spent many months visiting and photographing at two of the suburb’s key institutions, one old and one new: King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEMH) and Bob Hawke High School. Both places are vessels containing layered processes of upheaval, transition and metamorphosis. Throughout its 106-year history, KEMH has remained a steadfast presence within the cultural landscape of Subiaco. Although its maternal health services have dominated the hospital’s representational narrative, the public services provided within its walls have adapted and expanded greatly across the decades to meet community needs. Caporn chose to photograph the staff and patients that occupied three of the lesser-known departments within the hospital: the Sexual Assault Resource Centre, the mental health support at the Mother Baby Unit, and the Perron Rotary Express Milk Bank, which does revolutionary work. As the suburb's newest high school, Bob Hawke College was an ideal counterpoint to the longstanding presence of KEMH. Sitting on the site of the former Subiaco Oval, the importance of this new establishment extends beyond the boundaries of Subiaco, as it becomes a model for public education on a state level. Growing Pains seeks to recognise the stories of the people who occupy these spaces, capturing the self-conscious, awkward unfolding of young adulthood, the life-altering passage into motherhood, and journeys through trauma. It chronicles the figurative growing pains and processes of personal evolution that breathe life into—and personify—these institutions.

About the artist

Duncan Wright

Complex Space, 2022–23

These images document the artist's almost-weekly visits to Wandana, a social housing complex commissioned by the Western Australian government in 1954 and opened in 1956 in response to Perth's post-war housing crisis. Today, Wandana houses around 300 residents mainly aged 55 and older. Nestled between the now affluent, former working-class suburb of Subiaco and magnificent Kings Park, Wandana seems to be a place forgotten about by many. Yet, Wednesdays at Wandana see two alternating activities run by a group of kind, dedicated volunteers: community morning tea and Wandana Song choir group. These groups were the artist's first introduction to many Wandana residents. Wednesdays are also the day that the Foodbank truck comes, which became an opportunity for Wright to engage with other residents outside of the volunteer-led activities and get a feel for what life at Wandana is like. The images attempt to reflect the many sides of this complex space, where people—each with their own story—navigate the ups and downs of daily life amid a community facing challenges such as housing precarity, poor mental health, trauma, disability, addiction and substance or physical abuse—with little to no help from external agencies.  

About the artist

Emma Pegrum

Under her watchful eye we dance and sing, 2022

Made over a period of three weeks at the Shenton Park Community Centre, these images capture a moment in time with three long-standing Subiaco community groups: the Cloverwest Square Dance Club, the Voiceworks Plus Choir, and the Tiny Tutus Ballet School. The three groups pictured all operate out of the same space but offer activities for vastly different interests, needs and age groups—and all under the watchful eye of Queen Elizabeth II, whose death coincided with the making of the work but whose framed portrait nonetheless remained on the wall. The building's main room is defined by its herringbone wooden floor (which has been worn away over time by the square dancers) and the series of framed photographs documenting colonial history that adorn the periphery, anchoring the space within a certain time and cultural narrative. The images at once acknowledge the humble public value of such community spaces—and, importantly, the dedication of the groups that use them in continuing their community activities—while also gesturing at the ways in which the buildings can be relics of old structures and systems.

About the artist