2025
In the air we breathe
Rudi Williams presents photographs and photographic artefacts – some of which she has created herself, others she has found. Williams' motifs are quiet spaces full of traces that evoke a wealth of associations. In this exhibition, she focuses on camera-less images and silhouettes that revolve around the tension between presence and absence and address the theme of loss. Her practice reflects both the history and technical processes of photography, experimenting with early techniques such as daguerreotype and cyanotype, also known as ‘sun printing’. The photographs, daguerreotypes and textiles on display are supported by delicate steel structures that refer to forms of presentation in museums and emphasise the distinctiveness of each object. Thus, photography does not appear here as a flood of images, but as a collection of unique, breathing testimonies. The title of the exhibition In the air we breathe refers to the perception of signs that emerge in the spirit of the social zeitgeist, such as the mood around 1839 when the invention of photography was already 'in the air' and images were 'fixed' for the first time.
This catalogue made on the occasion of Williams’ exhibition at the Museum Folkwang in 2025 responds to the idea of the unfixed image explored in the exhibition. The paper stock will yellow over time and there has been a sheet of unfixed silver gelatin paper inserted into each copy.
2026, English / German, Softcover (staple–bound w. silver gelatin paper insert), unpaginated, 25.5 x 20.5 cm. Edition of 350.
Published by Museum Folkwang / Essen, Designed by Design Smile, Essen, With a conversation between Aodhan Madden and Rudi Williams.
2023
Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point is a series of bags constructed by Melbourne based up-cycle designers Up Shop Industries from Vantage Point; Rudi Williams' 2019-2021 public commission for Metro Tunnel. Displayed on the corner of Swanston Street and Franklin Street in Melbourne CBD between October, 2021 to January, 2023, the hoarding depicted a series of fragmented observations of the Metro Tunnel excavation sites taken from the vantages of surrounding architecture and infrastructure. Renamed as Vanishing Point in bag form, the repurposed images become impressionistic blowups of the excavation site photographs, drawing attention to the grain and pixels at the foundations of the images used in the original artwork and graffiti that accumulated during the display of the hoarding.
With thanks to Metro Tunnel Creative Program and Up Shop Industries.
Digital print on vinyl, 33x36x15cm. Each bag is unique.
Out of Stock
2021
unfixed:
σκιά σκιά σκιά,
ombra ombra ombra,
shadow shadow shadow
A self published artist book that was released to coincide with Rudi Williams' eponymous solo exhibition at Sutton Gallery, Melbourne; 10 July — 10 September, 2021. The work is informed by Williams' view that each image is an artifact of experience, translated through photographic processes. This recent iteration of an ongoing work combines photographs from her archive with unfixed silver gelatin paper to create a book that responds to the environment it is viewed in as well as being a record of the works included in her 2021 exhibition.
unfixed: σκιά σκιά σκιά ombra ombra ombra shadow shadow shadow is a constantly changing object. The light sensitive cover and internal light sensitive pages will darken and absorb touch when viewed. After multiple viewings the pages will separate from the delicate cloth binding.
Edition of 15
$660 AUD
2018
A G O R A P H O B I A
A response to Octavius La Rosa’s private collection of runway COMME des GARÇONS. This collaboration between Melbourne based artist Rudi Williams and fashion and textiles display specialist Annette Soumilas is a portrait of Octavius La Rosa through the documentation of his collection.
A 20 card publication set contained in a 25cm x 20cm blind embossed folder. The nineteen photographs document twenty-two COMME des GARÇONS runway garments dated from 2012 – 2018.
The photographs were created using a 5 x 4 large format film camera; each scenario a studied, in camera response to Rei Kawakubo's designs and concepts, the engineering of the garments and the psychological space the garments inhabit for the wearer.
Edition of 300.
2015-2018, English
Soft case, 20 cards, 25 x 20.5 cm
Ed. of 300,
Published by dot COMME / Melbourne
2016
ECHO
On the 15th of November 2012, Rudi Williams visited the Vatican Museum in Rome for the first time where she encountered a room that contained a series of display cabinets. The objects in the cabinet had been removed but the traces of the objects remained, burned into the backing velvet of the display cabinet, like a liminal photograph.
Edition of 100; this concertina postcard depicts the documents Williams made of the Vatican Museum display cabinets in 2012, with photographs taken in 2016 at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. The publication was made to accompany her solo exhibition Echo held at Caves Gallery in 2016.
2016, English
Leporello folding postcard set
Edition of 100,
Published by Self-Published / Melbourne
Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point is a series of bags constructed by Melbourne based up-cycle designers Up Shop Industries from Vantage Point; Rudi Williams' 2019-2021 public commission for Metro Tunnel. Displayed on the corner of Swanston Street and Franklin Street in Melbourne CBD between October, 2021 to January, 2023, the hoarding depicted a series of fragmented observations of the Metro Tunnel excavation sites taken from the vantages of surrounding architecture and infrastructure. Renamed as Vanishing Point in bag form, the repurposed images become impressionistic blowups of the excavation site photographs, drawing attention to the grain and pixels at the foundations of the images used in the original artwork and graffiti that accumulated during the display of the hoarding.
With thanks to Metro Tunnel Creative Program and Up Shop Industries.
Digital print on vinyl, 33x36x15cm. Each bag is unique.
Out of Stock