Michael Ziebarth

Biography

Michael Ziebarth recently returned to Adelaide from Perth, where he studied photography at Central TAFE and assisted photographers in the commercial photography industry for the last five years. He also worked as assistant to the curator of Indigenous artworks in the Kerry Stokes' Collection. A regular contributor to exhibitions at the Perth Centre for Photography, Michael was a finalist in the CLIP (Contemporary Landscapes in Photography) award in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 and the 2007 IRIS portrait award, and the 2010 Uncover exhibition. He recently held his first solo show at Perth Centre for Photography in October 2011.

For more information, visit Michael Ziebarth's website here

Artist Statement

This current series is part of an on-going collection focussing on trees in suburbia. These images, taken in various parts of Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria are part of a collection loosely titled Waiting. The images allow the viewer to enter into a new world amid the familiar - the looming foliage is simultaneously static and on-the-move; as if the trees are advancing somehow into the landscape which attempts to contain them.

Their beauty lies in the narrative they collectively suggest; in their organic and geometric shapes and placements, haphazardly orchestrated by an unseen force. It seems the trees are waiting to take back what is theirs; to escape man-made confines in a covert and mystical operation, which, it appears, is already underway.