Dr Chantal Faust
Lecturer
Please click here to see images of Chantal's work.
Research Interests
Dr Chantal Faust is a flatbed scanner. Her PhD thesis, ‘Pleasure Machines: Towards a Philosophy of Scanning,’ sought to define the flatbed scanner as a stage for the projection of fantasies, desires and pleasures Having studied photography as an undergraduate, Faust has since supplanted the role of the camera with a standard A4 scanner and has been using this machine to make images since 2000. This technique is central to the reading of her work because of the manner in which the glass of the flatbed physically affects whatever is being imaged: its digital eye touches to see. The process in concurrently blind in that the scanner (operator) is unable to see what is occurring beneath the hood of the flatbed. This introduces elements of chance and performance where an action made on the glass can never be exactly duplicated. Unlike the distance required in order for a lens-based apparatus to function, the scanner requires utmost proximity and in this process, the pressure of the recording process is made visible.
This palpable squash is a blatant, literal gesture. It is crude, easy and obvious. It is a staging of fact, transparency and blatancy in that it appears as though all is splayed and nothing is hidden. Simultaneously the force of a transparent screen (the glass of the flatbed) is ever present. The theatre of a scanned image is dependent on the glass and also on an audience. While transparent, the presence of the glass is made solid through the visible pressure from an invisible force and through the traces that make visible its presence as a surface. The glass is what announces the objective of display.
Dr Chantal Faust is a flatbed scanner. Her PhD thesis, ‘Pleasure Machines: Towards a Philosophy of Scanning,’ sought to define the flatbed scanner as a stage for the projection of fantasies, desires and pleasures Having studied photography as an undergraduate, Faust has since supplanted the role of the camera with a standard A4 scanner and has been using this machine to make images since 2000. This technique is central to the reading of her work because of the manner in which the glass of the flatbed physically affects whatever is being imaged: its digital eye touches to see. The process in concurrently blind in that the scanner (operator) is unable to see what is occurring beneath the hood of the flatbed. This introduces elements of chance and performance where an action made on the glass can never be exactly duplicated. Unlike the distance required in order for a lens-based apparatus to function, the scanner requires utmost proximity and in this process, the pressure of the recording process is made visible.
This palpable squash is a blatant, literal gesture. It is crude, easy and obvious. It is a staging of fact, transparency and blatancy in that it appears as though all is splayed and nothing is hidden. Simultaneously the force of a transparent screen (the glass of the flatbed) is ever present. The theatre of a scanned image is dependent on the glass and also on an audience. While transparent, the presence of the glass is made solid through the visible pressure from an invisible force and through the traces that make visible its presence as a surface. The glass is what announces the objective of display.
Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Melbourne, 2008; Master of Fine Art, VCA, 2003; Bachelor of Fine Art (Honours), VCA, 2001.
Employment History
Dr Faust has taught undergraduate and postgraduate students at the VCA since 2003.
Publications
Dr Faust’s writing has been published in magazines, catalogues and various publications throughout Australia. Below is a text written in 2008 on the occasion of being invited to give a floor talk at the Monash Gallery of Art. Chantal was asked to nominate her choice of who should have won The William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize of 2008. A prize that had already been judged, that she herself was a finalist in… and hadn’t won.
Everybody Loves a Winner
I was never much of an athlete, but before every primary school Sports Day, my mother would encourage me to repeat a mantra in my head before I sprinted off from the starter’s block… Her magic words were: Everybody Loves a Winner. Everybody Loves a Winner… Everybody loves a winner.
Despite the inevitable despair waiting on the other side of the finish line – that someone else had, most likely, already crossed – in hindsight, Everybody Loves a Winner isn’t really such a bad motivation.
Who doesn’t want to be loved?
Every artist whose work is hanging in this room obviously considered - even if only for a brief moment – the possibility of winning the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2008… the possibility to be loved… by everybody. If you’ve never entered a prize yourself, allow me to briefly let you in on the thought process that goes along with the entry fee. Firstly - and the Bowness is a particularly generous prize - in your head, you have already been handed the giant cheque amidst a huge fanfare where you were fabulously eloquent and glamorous and in addition to this, you have of course mentally spent the 15 grand... every last dollar. It’s a little like going to inspect a rental property and mentally putting your bed here and your desk there and your Japanese Zen bonsai garden just so. Once you’ve come back from your conceptual trip to New York in your hypothetical Miu Miu Boots, and the date of the award announcement begins to loom… you start questioning yourself… and the judges… and everybody else in the competition… Full of self-doubt, the mantra is now starting to sound more like: Nobody Loves Me… Nobody Loves a Loser.
Opening night and your car breaks down (well, mine did anyway) and worse yet, you haven’t received The Call. The elusive call. Surely, they’d call the winner? But then again, maybe not. And then you start questioning yourself… why did I enter? Who needs this torture? I never win anything. How can you win in art anyway? There are no rules. Since when did Art become Sport? And wasn’t it Flaubert who famously said that “Honours Dishonour”?
The winner is announced and after a few litres of Sav Blanc all is dandy. One month later you receive a letter from the gallery. You assume it is going to inform you when you can come and pick up your work… you loser.
Dear Chantal… it reads. As Part of Get into Art! Day, Monash Gallery of Art is presenting a forum titled “What the…!” I’m writing to offer You the Opportunity to be one of the artists on the panel. Each artist will be asked to select the entry they would have chosen as the recipient of the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize 2008.
And here we are.
What a curious thing it is to be asked to theoretically judge a prize that has already been awarded… a prize that you yourself were a contestant in. How does one respond to such a request? Honesty here seems inseparable from Narcissism, but insincerity will no doubt just sound insincere. However – leaving Damien Hirst out of this - what artist doesn’t need the money? And so you are faced with a mighty dilemma. An impossible question. A test.
The only way around it seems is to forget about the Prize per se, and just focus on the work… as if it were a normal exhibition that happened to be loaded with some pretty amazing looking photographs. And… possibly not that strangely, I actually agree with the judges’ decision of the winner and their honorary mentions. I think that the work of Concertina Inserra and Nat Thomas – the winning entry – is an outstanding work and it does have the lot – intertextual Australian art historical references, mother and child iconography, gothic undertones, a topless woman, corrugated iron, a white frame – who wouldn’t have picked it?
I think that Christian Capurro’s work is captivating and mysterious and I love the fact that he has used White-Out as a medium. It is a work that reveals itself slowly. It is an image I could look at for a very long time. Similarly, Simon Obarzanek’s Untitled Movement piece is beautifully filmic and imbued with a sense of melancholic nostalgia mixed with a good dose of post-apocalyptic sludge.
Equally, I think that Siri Hayes’ work is exceptional – and not just because she’s giving me a lift home. As with all of Siri’s works, it is a beautiful print that sees a sublime landscape stained with a quirky incident. Art students sprawl awkwardly over a hilltop, oblivious to everything but their sketchbooks as they attempt to outline the contours of the nude male life model who stands – quite ridiculously – on a tree stump staring out at the horizon. He looks like some modern day wanderer who has just stepped out of a painting by Caspar David Friedrich, thrown away his cane and clothes, grown a hippy mane and gone to the gym. Presumably, he is thinking about some weighty concept, like say, the meaning of life… or possibly how on earth he got into this situation. The students are thinking about him, particularly from behind. Siri, the invisible photographer is thinking about the picture and potentially about the way that futility and the marvellous can oddly coexist simultaneously.
In fact, this image could be a metaphor for our quest today. It’s about looking and judging. About beauty and madness. And it makes me think that Art is a pretty great thing because I get to think about all of this, and even talk to you today as part of an official party in a party where I should really be sitting somewhere quietly on a table over by the toilets. And I think of that line from Alice in Wonderland, where the Dodo says: “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” And I have nothing to give, but my love. Thank you very much.
Chantal Faust 2008
Everybody Loves a Winner
I was never much of an athlete, but before every primary school Sports Day, my mother would encourage me to repeat a mantra in my head before I sprinted off from the starter’s block… Her magic words were: Everybody Loves a Winner. Everybody Loves a Winner… Everybody loves a winner.
Despite the inevitable despair waiting on the other side of the finish line – that someone else had, most likely, already crossed – in hindsight, Everybody Loves a Winner isn’t really such a bad motivation.
Who doesn’t want to be loved?
Every artist whose work is hanging in this room obviously considered - even if only for a brief moment – the possibility of winning the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize for 2008… the possibility to be loved… by everybody. If you’ve never entered a prize yourself, allow me to briefly let you in on the thought process that goes along with the entry fee. Firstly - and the Bowness is a particularly generous prize - in your head, you have already been handed the giant cheque amidst a huge fanfare where you were fabulously eloquent and glamorous and in addition to this, you have of course mentally spent the 15 grand... every last dollar. It’s a little like going to inspect a rental property and mentally putting your bed here and your desk there and your Japanese Zen bonsai garden just so. Once you’ve come back from your conceptual trip to New York in your hypothetical Miu Miu Boots, and the date of the award announcement begins to loom… you start questioning yourself… and the judges… and everybody else in the competition… Full of self-doubt, the mantra is now starting to sound more like: Nobody Loves Me… Nobody Loves a Loser.
Opening night and your car breaks down (well, mine did anyway) and worse yet, you haven’t received The Call. The elusive call. Surely, they’d call the winner? But then again, maybe not. And then you start questioning yourself… why did I enter? Who needs this torture? I never win anything. How can you win in art anyway? There are no rules. Since when did Art become Sport? And wasn’t it Flaubert who famously said that “Honours Dishonour”?
The winner is announced and after a few litres of Sav Blanc all is dandy. One month later you receive a letter from the gallery. You assume it is going to inform you when you can come and pick up your work… you loser.
Dear Chantal… it reads. As Part of Get into Art! Day, Monash Gallery of Art is presenting a forum titled “What the…!” I’m writing to offer You the Opportunity to be one of the artists on the panel. Each artist will be asked to select the entry they would have chosen as the recipient of the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize 2008.
And here we are.
What a curious thing it is to be asked to theoretically judge a prize that has already been awarded… a prize that you yourself were a contestant in. How does one respond to such a request? Honesty here seems inseparable from Narcissism, but insincerity will no doubt just sound insincere. However – leaving Damien Hirst out of this - what artist doesn’t need the money? And so you are faced with a mighty dilemma. An impossible question. A test.
The only way around it seems is to forget about the Prize per se, and just focus on the work… as if it were a normal exhibition that happened to be loaded with some pretty amazing looking photographs. And… possibly not that strangely, I actually agree with the judges’ decision of the winner and their honorary mentions. I think that the work of Concertina Inserra and Nat Thomas – the winning entry – is an outstanding work and it does have the lot – intertextual Australian art historical references, mother and child iconography, gothic undertones, a topless woman, corrugated iron, a white frame – who wouldn’t have picked it?
I think that Christian Capurro’s work is captivating and mysterious and I love the fact that he has used White-Out as a medium. It is a work that reveals itself slowly. It is an image I could look at for a very long time. Similarly, Simon Obarzanek’s Untitled Movement piece is beautifully filmic and imbued with a sense of melancholic nostalgia mixed with a good dose of post-apocalyptic sludge.
Equally, I think that Siri Hayes’ work is exceptional – and not just because she’s giving me a lift home. As with all of Siri’s works, it is a beautiful print that sees a sublime landscape stained with a quirky incident. Art students sprawl awkwardly over a hilltop, oblivious to everything but their sketchbooks as they attempt to outline the contours of the nude male life model who stands – quite ridiculously – on a tree stump staring out at the horizon. He looks like some modern day wanderer who has just stepped out of a painting by Caspar David Friedrich, thrown away his cane and clothes, grown a hippy mane and gone to the gym. Presumably, he is thinking about some weighty concept, like say, the meaning of life… or possibly how on earth he got into this situation. The students are thinking about him, particularly from behind. Siri, the invisible photographer is thinking about the picture and potentially about the way that futility and the marvellous can oddly coexist simultaneously.
In fact, this image could be a metaphor for our quest today. It’s about looking and judging. About beauty and madness. And it makes me think that Art is a pretty great thing because I get to think about all of this, and even talk to you today as part of an official party in a party where I should really be sitting somewhere quietly on a table over by the toilets. And I think of that line from Alice in Wonderland, where the Dodo says: “Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” And I have nothing to give, but my love. Thank you very much.
Chantal Faust 2008
Exhibitions
Faust’s photo-based works have been seen in solo exhibitions including those staged at Jenny Port Gallery, The Centre for Contemporary Photography, West Space, Kings ARI, 24seven and the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those seen at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Monash Gallery of Art, Albury Regional Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW.
Faust’s photo-based works have been seen in solo exhibitions including those staged at Jenny Port Gallery, The Centre for Contemporary Photography, West Space, Kings ARI, 24seven and the VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery. She has also participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those seen at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Monash Gallery of Art, Albury Regional Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW.