ARRAY, the most recent body of work by Australian photographer Murray Fredericks,is a continuation of Fredericks’ renowned series Salt (2007), and more recently Salt: Vanity (2017), both exhibited at Hamiltons. In Salt: Vanity, Fredericks introduced a mirror into the previously undisturbed landscape and now, in ARRAY, Fredericks takes this a step further by introducing multiple mirrors which he painstakingly carries himself.
The literal definition of an array is a “systematic arrangement of similar objects, usually in rows and columns”. However in the contemporary setting, the word “array” also has meaning in relation to the use and storage of data. Fredericks says there is a crossover here; “In all my work I view light and space as ‘data’ and ‘information’. Light and space are the materials I work with each time I head out to Lake Eyre (this being the 23rdtrip since 2003). The compositions employ those ‘materials’ to create images which leave an emotional quality. The emotional quality I try to convey is one that represents my experience of existing in this infinite landscape. It is a quality of place defined by empty space.”