Patrick Pound, Dream Vitrine, 2025/ Wollongong Art Gallery/ Installation photography: Silversalt.
Australia’s most famous photograph has come out of the archives for an art exhibition delving into the dreams behind iconic works.
Max Dupain’s Sunbaker has been a symbol of our national identity and way of life for almost nine decades, but Wollongong Art Gallery is showcasing the piece with a new perspective as artist and collector Patrick Pound poses the question, ‘What might this image dream of?’
In his exhibition Dream Vitrine, Patrick has brought together an eclectic collection of images and found items to create unseen depth and story to work that is so well known.
Each cabinet in the installation combines the original work alongside its imagined dream to create surprising alignments, playful juxtapositions and sentimental connections.
“Patrick reimagines the gallery’s collection from being an assortment of artworks and objects to become things that have a life and a personality of their own,” Wollongong Art Gallery Director Daniel Mudie Cunningham said.
“It’s a really fascinating approach and one that really sparks the imagination as you walk through the exhibition and see images and objects interacting with one another.”
Patrick, whose work has been featured in curated shows throughout New Zealand, Australia, France, Germany, England, Korea, Italy, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and the United States, also explored his collection of 70,000 photographs to create a complementary exhibition on the outside of the building.
The artist selected photographs of subjects looking outdoors through windows, which have been showcased on panels outside the gallery.
The addition is on display to the wider community and aimed to give an insight into the real and imagined world of ghostly figures, happy families, actors performing and everyday folk.
“These images are really eye-catching and invite the viewer to consider what is going on inside the gallery and, I hope, encourages people to walk through the glass doors and discover one of the state’s largest regional galleries for themselves,” Mr Mudie Cunningham said.
The exhibitions will be on show until 16 November, with a series of programs and workshops complementing the work throughout the year.
For more information visit the Wollongong Art Gallery website.
