I Want To Know You Better is both a play on the collaborative process between artists Eden Menta and Janelle Low, and a challenge to viewers about connecting deeper with their environment and its shared inhabitants. The artists have found layers of overlap in their individual experiences of being different, misunderstood or pre-judged. Spending time together walking through the environments surrounding their studios and seeking out the smallest of inhabitants and the spaces they occupy, both have captured what is often unseen or overlooked.

Menta’s work is influenced by her immediate environment and is instinctive, reactive and subject to change depending on her state of mind in any given moment. Low’s work is usually driven, whether subtly or overtly, by a desire to prove people wrong, breaking down stereotypes and investigating the process of continuously forming one’s sense of identity. By working together, the artists discovered layers of overlap in their individual practices and experiences. They will present a series of outdoor photographs at Ballarat International Foto Biennale.

BIOGRAPHIES
Eden Rachel Menta works across various mediums including photography, collage, pencil and ink.  Her work is influenced by her immediate environment and is instinctive, reactive and subject to change depending on her state of mind in any given moment. Topics woven through the work include nods to pop-culture by referencing album covers and icons, self-portraiture and an intense insect curiosity. Edgy and instilled with a wry humour, Menta’s work is often motivated by the macabre, and is deeply driven by the processing of observations of the world around her. Menta has been attending the studio program at Arts Project Australia since 2013, and has exhibited annually at the gallery there. She has also exhibited in group exhibitions around Melbourne.

Janelle Low’s photographic practice explores the internal and external conflicts arising from growing up in multicultural Australia, and navigating its shifting and evolving cultural landscape. Her work looks into the sense of displacement and ‘otherness’ felt between heritage and cultural upbringing, questioning notions of identity and acceptance. In 2013, Low became the youngest winner of the National Photographic Portrait Prize from the National Portrait Gallery, and was a finalist in the William and Winifred Bowness Photography Prize in 2017. She was recently commissioned by Mecca for their The Many Faces of Mecca campaign, launched in the Bourke Street Myer windows, and has exhibited work nationally and internationally.