Art through the looking glass

Issue 18 | November 2006

After four years of work, artist Polixeni Papeptrou is at the end of her doctorate, awaiting the examiners' response and reflecting on how far she's come.

Her PhD exhibition, A Most Curious Adventure, is bigger than the vision she set out with.

The original plan to recreate Lewis Carroll's photographs of young girls was designed to examine the representation of the girl in culture, and the role of theatre and role-play in our lives.

It resulted in the series Dreamchild; but then Ms Papeptrou went further.

Using the "absolute structure" provided by the Monash PhD, Ms Papeptrou examined Carroll's literature and its relationship to his photographs, resulting in another series, Wonderland, that pushed her into new territory in her own artistic practice, combining photography and painting.

The doctorate, says the former lawyer and full-time, widely exhibited artist, gave her the opportunity to research more deeply and read more widely. "As an artist, you don't normally compare opinions, and you don't have to come to conclusions," she says.

Ms Papeptrou says she now wishes there was something beyond a PhD on offer. "I love learning and I really like to learn properly, in a structured sense," she says. "You're not working in isolation, and there's a whole community. It's very stimulating."

-- Melissa Marino