My Head on Your Heart

Roberta Thornley

Tim Melville Gallery
4 Winchester St, Grey Lynn

9 June - 4 July 2020

Opens 6pm Tuesday 9 June

Part of the Auckland Festival of Photography

Reviewed for PhotoForum by Virginia Were, 16 July 2020

"Mum is waiting to get an angioplasty procedure.

I picture a tiny balloon filling her arteries and wonder if its skin will be thick or delicate.

I imagine the surgeon sitting bent over with pursed lips, trying to blow it up.

Have you ever tried blowing up a water balloon? They are small and difficult and your lungs feel like they will burst and your cheeks turn to stone before you can finish.

Whose breath will be in my mother's veins?"

My Head On Your Heart is a suite of new works by Roberta Thornley that explore the tension between narrative time and the photographic image.