13/08/2015
ROBERT HACKMAN
LAPIDARS AND MONUMENTS
6 – 31 August 2015
On 06 August 2015, 19.00 the National Gallery of Arts is pleased to open to the public in its temporary exhibitions wing the exhibition "Lapidars and Monuments" of Robert Hackman, an Australian photographer. This is the first exhibition of this artist in the National Gallery of Arts in Tirana.
The exhibition shows a selection of about thirty-five colour photographs, in medium size, which have in their focus a personal photographic journey of Hackman in Albania during the last few years, his fascination with lapidars and monuments, and the Albanian post-socialist landscape. It is not the first time that Hackman undertake such an exploration. Last year he opened a solo exhibition at the National Historical Museum in Tirana that focused on the current state and metamorphosis of military bunkers built during the communist dictatorship in Albania.
It was during this outing focusing on the Albanian bunkers that Hackman "discovered" the next theme for his subsequent work. As Hackman himself puts it: “During these travels photographing the reuse and recycling of the military bunkers I became intrigued by the lapidars and public monuments. As each lapidar was unique in appearance Initially I thought them unlike the bunkers, which were replicated on an industrial scale. The bunkers were predominantly a replication of the same story regardless of their location, the lapidars each had an individual story and reason for existence.”
Hackman is a professional photographer since the 2000s. Born in Australia, he moved to London in 1995, where he lives and works today. His work interest is focused on humanitarian, historical and religious issues. In the past he has worked for UNHCR, UNICEF, the Refugee Council, Refugee Action, and numerous other organizations. In addition to this work he also is attracted to landscape and abstract photography. Hackman has held various exhibitions in London, Belgrade, Brazil, Georgia, Albania and Australia.
