She lives and works in Melbourne, on the land of the Bunurong/Boonwurrung people of the Kulin Nations. Her practice explores the relationship between humans and the more-than-human world, using photography in unconventional ways. She published the monograph Extraordinary Experiences (2022), named Australian Photobook of the Year, followed by Beware of People Who Dislike Cats (2023) and Phenomena (2023). Her work has been awarded and exhibited internationally and featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, and Art and Australia. She teaches photography at Swinburne University and is currently completing a PhD on the colonial representation of the kangaroo.
The exhibition Dark Whispers by Australian photographer Morganna Magee marks the fifth chapter of Homecoming, the exhibition cycle dedicated to contemporary photography, conceived by Irene Alison and curated by Irene Alison and Paolo Cagnacci. The event is organized in collaboration with Forma Edizioni and Associazione InFoto Firenze, with the support of Gruppo AF and Banca Ifigest. “For me, nature is all that matters. The rest of the world is a fiction created by humans to keep themselves busy—one in which I’ve never felt at ease. I’m much happier daydreaming under a tree than anywhere else.” It is in nature, in… silence stirred by countless rustlings of the Australian bush at dawn, that Morganna Magee finds her inspiration. Originally from Melbourne, the artist brings to Rifugio Digitale her first solo exhibition in Italy—Dark Whispers, curated by Irene Alison and Paolo Cagnacci—a show that brings together elements from her most recent bodies of work along with new material created exclusively for this exhibition. It unfolds as a journey into the dark heart of the forest, in search of something ancestral and untamed.
A new chapter in the Homecoming series, Magee’s exploration of the landscape has more metaphysical than geographical roots. What she presents is an inhabited terrain – suspended between the familiar and the surreal, populated by physical and intangible presences – where she seems to seek the very roots of her identity. A kangaroo peeks out here and there, the silhouette of a horse emerges from the morning mist, a flutter of wings rustles through the leaves, and we feel as though we might have glimpsed a ghost.
The nature of Dark Whispers trembles with life. It murmurs ancient voices, holds grief and hope, and reveals itself to the melancholic gaze of the photographer as a tapestry of enchantments and personal and collective memories—where death and rebirth are simply movements in a vast, unchanging cycle.
