In these corporeal works of photographic objects and mimetic representations of the body, I explore the concept of erasure as a praxical process within image-making. In the works of Ambrose, Hollow, and Miasma, bodies are defaced through a haptic manipulation of photographic material and rendered into phantasmagoric figures that elicit a vulnerability to suffering.

Veering towards my interest in photographs as objects, the works of Remnant and Elision consider the notion of transformation, through the act of destruction, to bring into being skin-like surfaces devoid of imagery. Treating photographic material as a form of illusory pellicle, I physically afflict photographs sourced from my personal archive by “unloading anxieties” and erasing all recognisable semblances. In regressing photographs to their material states, the works register palimpsestic traces of gestural marks.

Darren Tanny Tan is a Singapore-born Melbourne-based visual artist. He practices within an expanded field of photography that centres on his interest in corporeality as the image for mental phenomena. Tan’s works predominately reflect, through the presence of the body and the evocation of the natural world, imperceptible forces that affect human existence. Of further significance are the processes and materials employed. He incorporates mark-making techniques and occasionally fuses supplemental materials to create works that eschew photographic conventions in favour of material sensibilities. His works are often contrived through unorthodox image making processes where destructive impulses are sublimated; surfaces are attrited and deconstructed, at times to a point of dissolution. Through this antithetical process of creation by means of destruction, his works sustain a meditation on mortality and impermanence.

Tan is currently undertaking a Masters of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts. He holds a Bachelor of Photography from Photography Studies College and a Bachelor of Design (Communication Design) from RMIT University. He has exhibited locally and internationally and has been showcased in several major prizes across Australia, including the Bowness Photography Prize and the Olive Cotton Award.