Narelle Delle Baite
About the artist
Narelle Delle Baite is an Australian based photographic artist with a fascination for alternative concepts of beauty, feminine aesthetics and conceptual photography.
Informed by her background in New Media Arts (James Cook University, Townsville), Narelle’s practice combines academic research with interest in the exploration of the feminine in the context of natural and surreal perspectives to create a unique aesthetic space in which the conceptual meets the visual.
Narelle is known for obscuring the face in her portraits of women, with a focus on multifaceted symbolic representations, colours, posture and gestures. Narelle explores the inner and divine beauty of her subjects while considering boundaries of identity and the relationship of the individual to the larger world. Her goals are to disrupt the boundaries between real life and the otherworldly; the surreal and the common by constructing visual narratives that blur the lines between reality and imagination.
Narelle completed a Bachelor in New Media Arts (Photo media) in 2017, Honours in 2018 at James Cook University, Australia and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Arts. Narelle has both studied and spoken at an international level. In 2016, Narelle studied at the summer school at the University of Applied Sciences, Wurzburg; and in 2018 Narelle was invited to speak internationally at Malta University in Malta on her research on feminine aesthetics and photography. Narelle has exhibited works in Australia, Germany and England. Some recent exhibitions include the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize 2018 Townsville Australia, Open Cities 2017 Wurzburg Germany, Study Abroad 2017 Cairns Australia and Blue Print 2017 Townsville where she received the Photography Excellence Award.
Artwork
Glorious series
Digital photographic prints
Since the 21st century, few examples of photographic images integrate divine beauty in female portraiture, although photography has a long-standing relationship with beauty. Composited symbols such as flowers were used to obscure the unique features of the face, creating anonymity, at the same time signifying and revealing an interpretation of feminine beauty as divine.
Flowers are incorporated into ritual and sacrament the world over, as symbols of eros, beauty, perfection, fertility, joy and resurrection.
Historically, feminine beauty has maintained a prominent place in society; however, recent research suggests most women are dissatisfied with their appearance and view themselves negatively as a result from continuous media bombardment of unrealistic beauty ideals. This unhealthy attitude is reflected in the dramatic increases in female cosmetic surgeries. The feminine beauty 'ideal' is ever-changing, and the appeal for a new direction is recognised with the revival of the concept of Divine Beauty as a response to the increasing pressure for women to pursue unrealistic ideals of beauty.
Divine beauty is associated with the soul, God, aesthetics, goodness, nature and is beyond the physical. This series aims to offer an alternative notion of feminine beauty as divine and offer insight into feminine aesthetics in the 21st century.
Located at Level 2