Spaces between houses

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

In Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 (illustrated), Virginia Coventry uses the camera as an observational and recording device. Rather than seeking out the remarkable or the grand, the artist uses a taxonomic approach to document the changing residential streetscape of Townsville on the north-eastern coast of Queensland.

In Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks, the nature strip, footpath and front fence appear in the foreground of each image, while the sides of the images capture the corners of the Queenslanders on stumps. The centre of the photographs are dominated by — as the title suggests — the space between the houses which varies between the photographs.

Virginia Coventry ‘Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks’ 1977

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry

Virginia Coventry, Australia b.1942 / Spaces Between Houses – Two Blocks 1977 / Vintage silver gelatin photographs, hand-printed / 19 sheets: 20.2 x 22.6cm (each) / Purchased 2020. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Virginia Coventry / View full image

‘Suburban Sublime: Australian Photography’ / Gallery 6 of the Henry and Amanda Bartlett Galleries, Queensland Art Gallery / 10 August 2024 until 17 August 2025

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Glen O’Malley ‘Good Friday 1987, Kelvin Grove, Brisbane…’ 1987 William Yang ‘Me and Alan, living room. Graceville. 1986’ 2003 Grace Jeremy is Assistant Curator, Australian Art, QAGOMA ‘Suburban Sublime: Australian Photography’ / Gallery 6 of the Henry and Amanda Bartlett Galleries, Queensland Art Gallery / 10 August 2024 until 17 August 2025