Kristian Laemmle-Ruff is a photographic artist based in Melbourne, Australia. His work focuses on social, cultural and environmental challenges in an increasingly fragile and globalised world. Having recently expanded his practice to include sound and installation, Kristian blends documentary rawness with conceptual uses of symbolism and colour. Informed by a three month long trip, hitch-hiking through remotes parts of Australia, Kristian’s latest work challenges notions of Australian identity and the ongoing effects of colonialism. In 2016 Kristian released a controversial and ‘illegal’ image of Pine Gap, the US military intelligence base located in the heart of the outback on Arrernte country. Like the Pine Gap photograph, Kristian aims to expose dark and sometime forgotten places and stories in this land that’s ‘young and free’.
Mind the Gap
Mind the Gap is a somewhat dark and politically charged meditation on the gap between Australian cultures. It is not asking us to close the gap, to homogenise or assimilate; rather it asks us to acknowledge the gap, celebrate the diversity rather than deny its existence. It encourages us to question and hold ourselves accountable for our actions as global citizens. The work aims to highlight colonial mannerisms and differences between ways of understanding and valuing land. Mind the Gap encourages us to imagine a future with deeper reconciliation and stronger acknowledgment of Australia’s true history, and the histories of it’s First Nation’s people, rather than having our heads in the sand.
To view more of Kristian’s work please visit his website.