David Rosetzky’s True Self




SOCIAL WORK
One of Australia’s finest artists, David Rosetzky creates intensely beautiful lens-based works exploring identity, subjectivity and relationships. Increasingly, he collaborates with professionals from the fields of theatre, dance, film and sound. Drawing on fifteen years of practice, True Self: David Rosetzky Selected Works presents early portrait and longer duration videos, photographs, photo-collages and sculptures that reveal intimate relationships between the various aspects of his practice. It includes a major new video work, Half Brother (2013), commissioned by CCP with support from Irene Sutton. The exhibition not only allows us to see the consistency of Rosetzky’s vision, but to engage with a trajectory in his video that moves from lo-fi, singular portraits through to cinematic, long-duration work.

David Rosetzky, ‘Commune’ 2003, type C photographs mounted on composition board, flexilight, 120 x 290 x 450cm. Collection of Dr. Dick Quan, Sydney
Which member of your family influenced you the most?
David Rosetzky: It would be very difficult for me to distinguish any single family member as having more influence on me than another.
Do you think its ok to lie?
David: One could say that all art is a fiction of sorts, and therefore that lying is an essential part of art-making. So, yes I think it is more than OK to lie, it is necessary.
What does freedom mean to you?
David: Imagination.
Do you think things happen for a reason?
David: No.
What beliefs do you have that you think will never change?
David: That we are always changing.

David Rosetzky, ‘Think of Yourself as Plural’ 2008 (still), single channel high definition digital video, colour, sound, 29 minutes, 27 seconds, edition 3 of 6. Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne.
Do you believe in the supernatural?
David: I believe in the power of belief in the supernatural.
What do you think would be the best thing about being the opposite gender?
David: I often wonder how useful binary opposites are, particularly when thinking about gender.
How do you make important decisions?
David: I would say that I am generally a fairly intuitive person, but also try and look at things from a number of different perspectives before coming to a decision.
Have you ever been lost?
David: Often at the start of a project I will feel lost, and then have to follow a number of different leads or ideas before I find something that’s potentially worth pursuing. I think you have to take a leap of faith and try things out, even if you aren’t sure of exactly where it’s leading, because it’s often the things that don’t quite turn out as planned that end up becoming the most interesting and engaging. Being lost and finding unexpected outcomes can be a very rewarding process.
If I asked a good friend of yours what you were good at, what would they say?
David: Making things up.

David Rosetzky, ‘Portrait of Cate Blanchett’ 2008 (still), single channel high definition digital video, colour, sound, 9 minutes, 56 seconds. Courtesy the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra. Commissioned with funds provided by Ian Darling, 2008.
True Self: David Rosetzky Selected Works Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) (WA), 15 November – 21 December 2014 – pica.org.au
A CCP and NETS Victoria touring exhibition curated by Naomi Cass, Director and Kyla McFarlane, Associate Curator, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne. The development, presentation, promotion and tour of this project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body. The catalogue publication is made possible by support from the Gordon Darling Foundation –
Sponsored by
Merran Esson : Standing Still and Silently Balancing
June 7, 2020 | troublemagThe Western Sydney University Sculpture Award & Exhibition has been postponed until 2021 due to COVID-19, but the finalists have been announced. Congratulations to: Mark Booth, Jennifer Cochrane, Chris Edwards, Harrie Fasher, John Fitzmaurice, Jim Flook, Martin George, Akira Kamada, … Read More
Hey COVID-19 Thanks for the Good Times
June 1, 2020 | troublemagCallum R. Scott
One afternoon you rock up to your hospo job with a hangover, only to find that it’s closed its doors indefinitely and suddenly you’re unemployed again. With fuck all in your savings account, you decide to drown … Read More
Head On Photo Festival
April 7, 2020 | troublemag1 – 17 May 2020
This year the festival will stage an online version of the event, accompanied by a program of online seminars and events throughout the Festival period. The festival will then work to present a scaled-back physical … Read More
Dear Tree
April 7, 2020 | troublemaga listening experience created by Rose Turtle Ertler
“Dear tree,
Thank you for being here today for me and for everyone,
casting shade and giving a fresh breath
with deep and bold colours and gentle stillness.”
– by a contributor … Read More
Love in a Time of Coronavirus
April 7, 2020 | troublemagby Callum R Scott
And just as the zombie apocalypse kicked in, I quit my job. I’ll tell you why later in the piece. So, now I find myself unemployed at 50, in the middle of a pandemic. This is … Read More
Synthetica : art, technology & us
February 12, 2020 | troublemagDr Cameron Rose
Art and technology are by definition divorced from nature. Art is the product of human creativity and technique; it is an object, image, sound or movement that exists as a unique manifestation of our imagination. Technology comes … Read More
CAN’T DO TOMORROW
February 11, 2020 | troublemagAustralia’s largest showcase of urban & street art
20 – 29 February 2020
This inaugural festival will see over 100 street artists and musicians take over Melbourne’s iconic multi-level warehouse, The Facility, transforming it from top to bottom with paintings, … Read More
The Road to Darwin
December 14, 2019 | troublemagChapter 4 – The Alice
Rolled into Alice Springs, literally: a strong head wind burnt up all the petrol. As the sun set in the west (I presume it was the west because that’s where the sun sets where I … Read More
Terminus : Jess Johnson & Simon Ward
December 8, 2019 | troublemagHeide Museum of Modern Art presents
a mysterious universe of alien architecture populated by humanoid clones and cryptic symbols, explored via a network of travellators and gateways.
2 November 2019 – 1 March 2020
IMAGE CREDITS: … Read More
Arthur Boyd : Landscape of the Soul
December 6, 2019 | troublemagby Alexandra Sasse
Have you had any lessons? The enquiry came from a woman and her friend who had been loitering behind me as I painted en plein air in a local park. It seemed a particularly stupid question, especially … Read More