Janine Fuller prepares for her first solo exhibition
There’s a quiet buzz inside Janine Fuller’s shared studio at UniSC’s Maker Space. Rolls of paper lean against the wall, waiting to become towering floor-to-ceiling prints. On her desk, a portable document scanner sits like a curious relic, unassuming, yet central to her latest body of work. Across the table, scattered test prints reveal fragments of skin: folds, scars, shadows and textures, stretched and distorted into strange new proportions.
These images are from Distorted Mirror, Janine’s first solo exhibition, opening September 20 at LANTANA Space. The works are not portraits in any traditional sense. Instead, they are impressions, part abstract, part intimate, that encourage us to look longer, harder, differently at our bodies.
“We’re taught to notice the flaws first,” Janine says, pausing over one print where a curve of skin has taken on the quality of sculpture. “Meanwhile, the beauty, the strength, the warmth, the story slips quietly into the background.”
The Body as Terrain
Janine’s process is deliberately unpolished. By pressing her body against the scanner’s surface, she rejects the smoothing filters of digital editing. What the machine captures is immediate and unflinching, reducing the gaze to skin, flesh and shadow. The resulting images hover between figuration and abstraction, inviting us to encounter the body not as an object of critique but as a terrain: textured, shifting, alive.
Soon to be presented on a monumental scale in LANTANA’s dimly lit exhibition space, these prints will engulf their viewers. They ask for slowness, for patience, for a willingness to sit with what may first appear uncomfortable within your own body until it begins to soften, revealing a quiet tenderness.
Between Human and More-than-Human
Janine is best known for her immersive ecological work. From underwater photography on K’gari, featured in Head On Photo Festival 2025, to soundwalks that reveal the hidden stories of ecosystems, her practice consistently asks us to listen more closely to the worlds around us. Distorted Mirror turns that attention inward. If her landscapes teach reverence for nature, these works demand the same care for the human form.
What happens when we look at our bodies as we might at coral reefs or forests, fragile, storied, worth protecting? Janine’s exhibition suggests that such a shift might change not only how we see ourselves but also how we connect to one another.
Opening Night: Flesh, Sound, and Performance
On opening night, Janine collaborates with musician Finn Wegener for a performance that uses the sounds of her body: breath, the soft press of skin, the gurgle of the belly. Layered with the imagery surrounding the audience, the performance transforms the body into both subject and instrument.
Why Distorted Mirror Matters
In a culture saturated with filters, enhancements and impossible ideals, Janine’s work offers no escape into fantasy. Instead, it insists on presence, on staying with what is real, imperfect and profoundly human.
Distorted Mirror is more than a debut exhibition. It is a call to reimagine the mirror, to trade distortion for something closer to truth.
Distorted Mirror by Janine Fuller
Opening Night: Saturday 20 September 2025 | 5–8pm | Performance at 5:30pm
LANTANA Space, 15 Allen St, Moffat Beach
Free | RSVP essential
Photos by Jamie Davidson
