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4 June - 30 June

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LUNCH BARS: Exploring Western Australia’s Fast-food Culture

 

Photographs by Brett Leigh Dicks

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For the past two years, American / Australian photographer, Brett Leigh Dicks has been tracking down examples of this quirky and vibrant slice of Western Australiana with the results being exhibited in June.

 

Lunch Bars was subject matter that echoed cultural similarities to that of California, where the American/Australian photographer lived and worked for the past two decades. It was the parallels between the hole-in-the-wall taquerias - eateries offering Mexican street food - and lunch bars here in the west that inspired the series.

 

“The New Topographic photographic movement is very popular in the States and has informed the way I work,” he said.  “Photographers like Stephen Shore, Lewis Baltz, and Grant Mudford inspire me greatly and lunch bars are precisely the type of urban landscape with a societal quirk they would cast an ironic eye upon.”

 

Guided by the movement’s ethos, Brett approached his subjects with a stark yet poetic austerity. That approach allowed the character of each lunch bar to come shining through, unveiling a collection of dystopian eateries buried within the industrial parks of Perth, all brimming with character, flavour, and Western Australian flair.

 

Lunch Bars will be exhibited at Ellenbrook Arts in Ellenbrook, Western Australia from 3 - 30 June, 2022. Featuring 40 colour photographic prints, the exhibition brings to the fore an under celebrated aspect of WA's culinary scene.

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