Michelle
creates images at the nexus of fine art and exploratory science; her lens based practice blends hand-crafted experimental lighting techniques and analogue methodology within digital systems. Captured with scientific precision, her cyclopedic subjects are presented with a uniquely intimate point of view.
Michelle McFarlane (born 1977, Melbourne, Australia) is a photographic artist whose work encompasses the world around us: the minute, the provocative, the pragmatic and the human.
Equipped with an Applied Science degree in Photography, Michelle’s many adventures include photographing Museum Victoria’s most cherished collection for the hardback book ‘Treasures of the Museum’ (2004).
She has the ability to forge connections with people from all walks of life, working directly with patients in high-pressure clinical settings to taking technical and medical images for Melbourne’s leading Universities and Hospitals.
Michelle’s skill set has allowed her to travel the world to perform as both photographer and crew for multiple international arts festivals, including working with renowned Australian-based company Bambuco, who used qualified rock climbers to construct large scale bamboo structures.
Michelle’s global travels with her film camera began with a solo journey around South America where she developed a talent for putting people at ease in front of the lens with innovative collaborative techniques that blur the boundary between subject and photographer.
These insights inform her self-directed and professional projects including face-to-face engagement work around identity with metropolitan and regional communities in Victoria, and her collaborative projects with marginal groups in outback Queensland and the Sacred Heart Women’s House back in her hometown St Kilda.
She has held numerous exhibitions including Sickness of Long Thinking (2008), The Law Needs Feminism (2019), Rumble in the Fungal Jungle (2019) and Anatomy of an Accident (postponed to 2021).
CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 “Death on the Street,” The Goat Gallery (Natimuk, Australia).
2008 “Michelle McFarlane: The Sickness of Long Thinking,” The Goat Gallery (Natimuk, Australia).
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 “Break the mould,” Horsham Regional Art Gallery (Horsham, Australia).
2019 “Law Needs Feminism Because…,” Monash Law Chambers (Melbourne, Australia).
2011 “Footpath Gallery,” Sacred Heart Mission Grey st laneway (Melbourne, Australia).
PUBLICATIONS
2008 “The Sickness of Long Thinking,” artist’s book by Michelle McFarlane.
2004 “Treasures of the Museum,” 150th-anniversary hardcover by Museum Victoria.
MAJOR COMMISSIONS, RESIDENCIES & COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
2017 ‘Beer Can Studio’, Rubyvale Royal Hotel, Gemfest workshops (Rubyvale, Australia).
2015 “Bug up”, Bug detectives, (Melbourne, Australia).
2007 ‘Cyrk’, Arts House Meat Market, Y Space, Photographer (Melbourne, Australia).
2007 ‘Styckx’, ‘Poppet Project’, ‘Lutunda’, ‘Dusk’, ‘Highly Strung’, ‘Feet of Clay’, ‘Space & Place’, Made in Natimuk, Photographer (Melbourne, Australia).
2007 ‘Citadelles de Feu’, Bambuco & Cie. Carabosse, Rigger & Photographer (Bitche, France).
2007 ‘Le Dit du Bambou, Souk De La Parole’, Bambuco & Cie. Caracol, Dans le cadre de la journée Nationale des Arts de la Rue à Chalon Sur Saône (Angers, France) Festival Excentrique, à Orléans, festival Les Tombées de la Nuit à (Rennes, France) & Festival a/d Werf (Utrecht, Netherlands).
2007 ‘Travelling Curtain’, Bambuco, Perth International Arts Festival (Western Australia).
2008 ‘This Bridge’, Bambuco, River Tyne (Newcastle, England).
2006 ‘Human Momentum’ Bambuco, Melbourne Frinj Festival (Melbourne, Australia).
2006 Korean International Art Fair, Bambuco Han River (Seoul & Suwon, South Korea).
2006 Résidence pour la création, ‘Souk de la Parole’, Bambuco & Cie. Caracol, Abattoir (Châlon-sur-Saône, France) & Lieux Publics (Marseille, France).
2006 ‘Willy Willy’, Bambuco, Rigger & Photographer (Bitche, France).
2002 Field Photographer, New South Wales Archaeological Project (NSW, Australia).
2001 Photographer, University of Melbourne, The Burnley Plant Directory (Melbourne, Australia).