For over 14 years, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale has enriched the cultural landscape of regional Victoria and become the most significant, prestigious photographic arts festival in Australia. Held every two years it showcases work from domestic and international artists that is new, previously unseen in Australia or contextualised afresh, whilst also fostering the development of new artists.The Foto Biennale is guided by the principle that it not only serves the community but also plays a vital role in cultivating it.

As part of the Biennale Fowler will exhibit recent works from his series Brave New World and Future Distant History.

Hayden Fowler constructs elaborate sets in which he choreographs human and animal subjects creating fictional scenes that explore notions of ecology, human history and civilisation. In Future Distant History Fowler’s black and white landscape photographs present abnormalities within the environment by inserting quasi-landforms of alien ‘landfill’.

By referencing the dark menace of majestic mountain and seascapes from art history his photographs become omens of ecological tragedy. On the other hand, his series Brave New World, created during a 2017 residency in Madrid, presents a donkey
– a historical symbol of Spain – dragging the remnants of a table pedestal, evoking a post-apocalyptic scene. Here, the donkey metaphorically drags the weight of civilisations’ burdens behind him.