I'll be showing a couple of new works at the Centre for Contemporary Photography's 2016 CCP Salon. It's their annual open-entry exhibition.

These works, State #1 and State #2, (maybe the start of a series?) are in parts, me tapping into the zeitgeist and exploring the abstract concept of nationality, the politics of identity, current global migrant and refugee crisis, what makes people tick, what they fear, the rise of the far-right and where the intelligentsia are getting things wrong.

They are not photographic works per se, more like installations created by using photomedia. There is a back story to go with the photomedia. I was at the Malaysian immigration department getting my passport photo taken back in the pre-digital days, quite possibly for my first trip to Australia, but I'm not sure. The man operating the photo booth had stacks of these pairs of leftover negative space cut-outs. He was collecting them instead of throwing them out. I remember feeling like I really wanted some of it, partly because I thought his collection was amazing and partly, in some subliminal way, I knew that someday they'll become useful for something. I persuaded him to sell me some. That was roughly 20 years ago and I've lugged them around with me ever since, not quite knowing why or what I'll do with them, until now.

The show opens on Thursday, 24 November, 2016 at 6pm.