Kate Mitchell: All Auras Touch
Kate Mitchell, All Auras Touch, 2020 Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia
Interestingly, Kate Mitchell has incorporated the Australian Census into her practice to produce her work All Auras Touch (2020) which brings about a unique viewpoint on employment in Australia and interconnections between workers and the artist. Using the main occupation list found in the Australian Census, and the Aura Camera 6000 which utilises electromagnetic field imaging equipment, Mitchell’s goal was to capture a portrait for one of each occupation listed. This project focuses on the 5 w’s on the topic of work such as who works? What do people work as? When do people work? Where do people work? Why do people work? and how do people work? From my personal perspective, the answers to these questions can be found in All Auras Touch which displays a variety of people, all different ages, genders and most importantly auras. From Mitchell’s lecture, I have understood auras to be the different colours people transmit which represent different energies. These energies which are projected are captured with the aura camera. When viewing these images, I see the connections between body and mind between the artist and the sitter and between the sitter and their aura.
"All Auras Touch is a snapshot of contemporary Australia..." (Mitchell 2020)
Kate Mitchell, All Auras Touch, 2020 Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia
As there are 1,023 portraits of workers being captured in this exhibition Mitchell articulates that different jobs have brought out different ways she would approach the person stating when it was a judge’s or policeman’s turn an unstoppable feeling of fear or “nervousness” would take part (Mitchell 2021). Furthermore, With the vast amount of workers being photographed connections, there are highly apparent connections. By grouping the images with similar auras, Mitchell’s work is exhibited as a typology. This is similar to the works of August Sander in People of the Twentieth Century (1927) where Sander captured people of different work and social classes in 1920 Germany, grouping them in typologies of seven categories.
Moreover, the categorisation of people with similar auras, in All Auras Touch represents an interconnectedness that is shared amongst them and disregards the differences in the careers of these people.
References:
Schauplatz für Fotografie, W. (2018, April 18). AUGUST SANDER. PORTRAIT OF A SOCIETY. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MJZPFmulK8
Mitchell, K. (2020). All Auras Touch [Photography Exhibition]. Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia https://www.katemitchellartist.com/#/all-auras-touch-2020/
Mitchell, K. (2021). Kate Mitchell Lecture [80067 Photography Guest Lecture Program]. UTS Canvas. https://canvas.uts.edu.au/
Mitchell, K. (2020). Kate Mitchell [Portfolio]. ALL AURAS TOUCH, 2020. https://www.katemitchellartist.com/#/all-auras-touch-2020/