The Hobart Mercury 1990

A review of Philip Hayes' "Life Forms" exhibition at Entrepot, Centre for the Arts, featuring 22 manipulated polaroid photographs combined with screenprints exploring the human figure. Written by Shirley Apthorp.

Written by Shirley Apthorp, this article covers Philip Hayes' exhibition "Life Forms" at Entrepot, the entrance gallery for the Centre for the Arts. The show marks Hayes' first public exhibition of his Polaroid work, combining manipulated Polaroid photography with screenprints to explore the human form through figure studies.

A graduate of Ballarat University College, Hayes taught printmaking at Ballarat Grammar School and the Ballarat School of Education, and served as president of the Ballarat Contemporary Arts Group before moving to Tasmania in 1989 to study at the Centre for the Arts. His work is held in both public and private collections.

The 22 images in Life Forms draw on the 1970s tradition of manipulated polaroids as an art medium, a form that had largely disappeared from public view in recent years. Hayes deliberately keeps his models anonymous, preferring to focus on personality and form rather than personal relationships with his subjects.

He had also recently been invited to show his work "Indians" at the Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney.