ANDREI BUTERS

Frustration at vacuous beauty led Australian photographer Petrina Hicks into an arts career she did not believe was possible.

Her complicated work is on show from February 18 as part of PICA’s Hijacked III group-photography exhibition, curated by Louise Clements, Mark McPherson and Leigh Robb.

Thinking there was no way to make a living in the arts, Hicks worked as a commercial photographer for six years.

“I became very frustrated and dissatisfied with the whole process,” she said.

“In commercial photography everything just has one layer.

“There is only one meaning that can be derived from the images.

“It felt like I was creating nothingness.”

However, Hicks became fascinated with the tools and language of commercial photography and advertising – and how they were used to seduce and evoke desire and need in people.

“So I started to explore making images in my spare time that employed the language and tools of commercial photography, but images that were subversive and ambiguous,” she said.

“I was obsessed with creating images that were a tension between two opposing ideas – but a very quiet and subtle tension.”

This tension is seen in works like ‘Emily the Strange’ (pictured) where a young girl cradles a hairless sphynx breed of cat.

There is also previous work like ‘Comfort’, where an albino woman’s face is lost in a mass of pure white fur.

Photography fans loved Hicks’ images and her work has now been exhibited across Australia, Germany, Japan and Mexico.

Hicks is now a full-time artist and hasn’t done a commercial photography for five years.

In the hunt to find the perfect model that can exude a mood or create viewer compassion, Hicks approaches people she spots on the street.

She said the greatest challenge was creating work that is more than just superficially beautiful.

She explained that a stark, minimal surface image ordinarily gave an initial impression of just one layer.

‘Yet it is the content or idea or sub-text of the image that has many layers, often conflicting layers to create a tension, or just a very ambiguous idea that doesn’t really deliver the feeling the surface of the image should promise,” she said.

Hijacked III will display at PICA from this Friday to April 8.

The exhibition showcases work by 24 contemporary photographers, including Bindi Cole, Tracey Moffat, Tereza Zelenkova, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanari.