Everything I want to be when I grow up- Bronte Mark

Polly Borland, Her Majesty, The Queen Elizabeth II (gold) 2001

The retrospective exhibition, Everything I Want to Be When I Grow up fills the entire upper level of the UQ Art Museum. It explores Polly Borland’s concerns with identity, the outcast, beauty and ugliness focusing on people, their outward appearance and personae and, at the same time their self-image, their doubts and insecurities, and the more fundamental psychologies of personality. Borland’s type C photographs are displayed on multiple walls, beginning with her celebrity pieces displaying famous faces such as Cate Blanchett, Nick Cave and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the entrance and progressing into her more ambiguous pieces until the end. Borland’s photography has straddled commercial/ documentary and fine art practice and this shines through the diverse range of portraits from a collection of different series such as Australians, Bunny, The Babies, Smudge and Pupa.  Her photographic practice is characterised by an edgy sensibility that lends her images tension and resonance, the portraits of celebrities and friends channel a portrayal of her own self-identity and human nature in general. Using others to pose for her rather than posing herself sparks interest, is she using others as a mask for herself? The already obscure link to Borland’s own self-identity is once again disconnected by the use of other people, especially celebrities. However this can only raise more speculative questions.

Polly Borland, Untitled XVII 2004-2005

The introduction of props such as balls, stockings, wigs, costumes, masks and make up transform her human subjects into hybrids, drawn to the weird and wonderful, Borland’s left-of-centre approach transforms the ordinary, even banal, into the extraordinary. These ambiguous pieces drift away from Borland’s more traditional portraits relating to status and transition into our more primitive and undesired traits that we, as highly intelligent beings seem to forget about. These images appear to deny the subject both their likeness, and any exposure of their ‘true’ character and could almost be called anti-portraiture. Some of Borland’s more successful works are the ones starring musician, actor and author Nick Cave in the series Smudge and the exceptionally tall model Gwendolyn Christie in Bunny. The transformation of their bodies and likeness is intriguing and simply a bit creepy and grotesque. The suppression of likeness, and the disguising of identity in these pieces support the notion that they are irrelevant. The subject is pushed and pulled to extremes.

Polly Borland, Untitled III 2012

The delicate transitions from Borland’s iconic celebrity photography to the more cryptic and bold pieces channels thought and care from the curator Kubler. The lead promotional photograph displayed on a large banner outside of the UQ Art Museum is Nick Cave in a Blue Wig from the Smudge series in 2011, was possibly the best image to use to evoke interest in a wide audience due to the Nick Cave’s relationship with pop culture. This exhibition definitely worth seeing takes the viewer on a journey from Borland’s boom in Melbourne the 1980s to her life England and to her current residency in Los Angeles. The UQ art museum is a highly regarded gallery that always immaculately displays high status shows and has delivered once again for Everything I Want to Be When I Grow up, a retrospective unveiling Polly Borland’s artistic journey, which is now maturing gracefully.