Distant Districts By Dave Kulesza
In his latest exhibition, Distant Districts, Melbourne-based photographer Dave Kulesza captures a remote dome village in South West Morocco’s Western Sahara, exploring the pull of the unexpected.
Words HANDE RENSHAW Photos DAVE KULESZA
Distant Districts is the fourth photographic fine art collection produced by Melbourne photographer, Dave Kulesza.
The exhibition also features hand-made ceramic sculptures inspired by the domes and the Distant Districts series, created by Melbourne artist, Jan Vogelpoel.
‘Although built within the last 2 years, the Dome Village transported me to a distant place in another world.’
“Although built within the last 2 years, the Dome Village transported me to a distant place in another world—the organic shaped huts didn’t look like they were made by man, but of other beings with a different purpose.”
Distant Districts by Dave Kulesza includes a series of 22 large-scale photographs.
DISTRICT 5 by Dave Kulesza.
Distant Districts, the fourth photographic fine art series by Melbourne-based photographer Dave Kulesza, takes viewers far beyond the familiar.
Shot in a remote pocket of South West Morocco, on the edge of the Western Sahara, the collection is focused on a dome village Dave stumbled upon while researching locations earlier this year. What he found there: a cluster of organic, almost other-worldly structures, became the catalyst for a body of work that blurs time, place and reality.
In a cultural moment shaped by digitally generated landscapes and imagined worlds that never leave the screen, actually finding a place that feels unreal has become increasingly rare. Dave’s first encounter with the village delivered the kind of visceral jolt that anchors his work. ‘Although built within the last 2 years, the Dome Village transported me to a distant place in another world.The organic shaped huts didn’t look like they were made by man, but of other beings with a different purpose,’ shares Dave.
Dave’s restrained eye shapes the rhythm of the series. The architecture is given room to speak, uninterrupted by unnecessary detail. When a lone figure appears: a girl moving through a place that seems to follow its own logic, she becomes a subtle anchor, offering scale and a hint of narrative. She isn’t the subject so much as a guide, mirroring the curiosity and displacement that first drew Dave to the site. ‘The placement of a human followed the narrative of the period in which my imagination ventured,’ he says.
The resulting 22 large-scale photographs transport viewers to a reality that feels suspended: a distant place in a distant time. They speak to the tension between the imagined and the real, and the wonder that emerges when creativity finds form in unexpected ways.
Adding another layer to the exhibition. Melbourne ceramicist Jan Vogelpoel has created a series of hand-made sculptures inspired by the domes themselves. Her pieces echo the tactility of the done architecture, extending the dialogue between form, material and landscape.
Together, the photographs and sculptures invite viewers into a world that feels both ancient and newly formed, a reminder that even in an age of artificial worlds, real places have the power to astonish.
Distant Districts
110 Martin Street, Brighton
27th November – 21st December
Gallery. By Dave Kulesza
