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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

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Transillumination (A Moment of Noise in Memory of Absence), 2016

by Kailum Graves

Finalist, Digital Portraiture Award 2016
Single-channel HD digital video

Transillumination (A Moment of Noise in Memory of Absence), 2016 by Kailum Graves
Video: 9 minutes

Transillumination (A Moment of Noise in Memory of Absence) is comprised of thousands of self-portraits created by capturing the transmission of light through different parts of my body with a mobile phone. Transillumination of the skin is performed to visualise subsurface blood volume and blood oxygen saturation; however, by repeating the process in this portrait, it creates an ambiguous sequence of moving images that exist somewhere between art and life, the organic and inorganic. The work is a combination of performance and videography and takes the form of both an abstract self portrait and a binary landscape.

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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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