17/04/2009 - 10/05/2009
STOCKED
Curator's note:
Take yourself back to a moment where you perceived a camera as being more than just a daily plaything. Back to a time in your mind when it was the conduit for a moment, a place, a feeling. In Stocked, four photographers do more than just point and shoot.
They capture and move.
They construct their own narratives, their own moments in time.
Like diplomats in their truest sense, they rely on their skill and tact in negotiating moments away from others to take as keepsakes of their own.
A diplomat's daughter with a bulging passport; a lapsed image maker and self confessed Nipponphile; a rabid, roving photographer with a poet's heart, and a committed, emerging image maker in constant battle at his day job are brought together to share the Immersion Therapy space.
Together, their images overlap, interweave and intersect, and in their own individual ways, leave signposts of the different journeys each has embarked on.
Underlying each work, is the conviction that no matter how moving an object, no other medium offers a sensation as visceral as photography does.
FIRZA LIYANA is a Malaysian based photographer who has recently been based in Melbourne. Firza has been commissioned for photographic work in Malaysia and Australia, juggling her burgeoning career with the demands of study. The daughter of a diplomat, her photographic strengths are most apparent when she documents people.
Whilst overcoming barriers her photos also document Firza’s ability to make instant connections with her subjects. Firza will be relocating to Malaysia in the near future. Immersion Therapy is delighted to be staging her first Australian showing.

13/02/2009 - 08/03/2009 joint exhibition
JULIA CHIU
KARST
Curated by Julia Johnston
Exploring her Hong Kong Chinese and Dutch-Indonesian heritage with Karst, Julia Chiu’s
installation of a panoramic, abstract ink work and photographic self portrait constructs a
playful narrative whilst illuminating the dualities and ambiguities of cross cultural identity in
modern Australia.
Julia’s practice spans installation, sculpture, photography as well as musical and
collaborative projects. Whilst her work is constantly evolving, it is underpinned by the
enjoyment of and incorporation of different media and the unexpected modes of production.
Her inspiration for Karst can be traced back to the traditional karst landscape depictions
popular with Chinese masters, and also bears the influence of contemporary artists Cai Guo-giang and Song Dong whose conceptual works often incorporate unconventional media.
Having graduated from Queensland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
(Visual Arts), Julia was later awarded First Class Honours in Sculpture at RMIT. Currently
completing her Masters, Julia has exhibited nationally, with recent shows at Boxcopy
Contemporary Arts Space in Brisbane and TCB art Inc in Melbourne. A Finalist in the 2007
RMIT Siemens Fine Art Scholarship Awards, Julia combines her artistic practice with work in
arts administration and curatorial projects.
Karst has been guest curated by Melbourne based curator Julia Johnston.

05/12/2008 - 21/12/2008
HUA CUN CHEN
SHIAU-PENG CHEN
ALAN COTTON
BENEDICT ERNST
ANDREA INNOCENT
DAMON KOWARSKY
JESSICA MAIDEN
FATEMEH VAFAEINEJAD
NAOKO YENEHARA
Exhibition: GROUP THERAPY

Curated by Dave Di Vito, curatorial assistance: Julia Johnston
Part and parcel of the modern experience is the sensation of duality; the underlying feeling
that one never truly belongs in one time or place.
The competing pulls in our lives; geographic, emotional or temporal are symptoms of a world in which our borders are crumbling and our boundaries are constantly on the move. For many, the reality is that whilst we remain rooted in our daily existence we do so without the same level of grounding we once might have expected.
Articulating the sensation of these oppositions, Group Therapy brings together nine of
Australia’s most interesting established and emerging artists in a show which explores the
push and pull between cultures and times that are now so prevalent in modern life.
The artists undertaking Group Therapy are united in that they all to some degree juggle the
influence and pull of multiple cultures although their individual approaches and use of media adds another layer and point of difference to the equation.

14/11/2008 - 30/11/2008
GEOFF BURROWS
AFTER THE JUMP
Curator notes:
Through a series of images that swerve between the extremes of intimacy and isolation,
Geoff Burrows navigates his own stream of (un)consciousness against a decidedly
Melbourne backdrop.
Exploring the barriers; metaphoric and literal, that stand between us
and the light of our dreams and self development Geoff’s images lay out a boding and
ominous urban landscape within which he is trying to make his way.
In the face of the doors and choices laid out before him, Geoff’s picture of his ambitions
become messy and unclear. Reaching for new heights, and crossing thresholds becomes
all the more difficult as the fears and barriers further test his resolve.
Geoff is a Melbourne based photographer who has exhibited in a number of group shows
around Melbourne.
After The Jump. is Geoff’s own leap into the solo unknown, marking his own special juncture and a bookend of his decade long practice of photography as he begins a new creative cycle.

26/09/2008 - 12/10/2008
YING ANG
BETWEEN HERE AND THERE

Immersion Therapy's inaugural exhibition was Between Here and There by Ying Ang.
Curator notes:
"Virtually self taught, Ying has already hewn a highly successful career from fashion and
commercial photography, capturing images at the extremes of ephemeral and timeless
styles on a daily basis.
Between Here and There marks a departure from her commercial work, instead finding Ying
seeking out and celebrating that which we overlook.
Between Here and There revels instead in the quiet beauty of the in-between and lead up moments.
Shifting focus away from the end result, Ying's images, (taken from around the globe), glisten with the deeper lustre of the beauty which has time to accumulate, expand and grow during the course of the journey.
It's from these seemingly unquiet moments that Ying draws, assembling a series of
consistently anticipatory and still images, as ripe with expectation as they are in their gentle
grace."
For more on Ying Ang or to see more of her work visit her website.