Watch her work camera backwards

McKenzie, V. (2025). Watch her work camera backwards, catalogue essay for UK Frederick’s The Camera Unrepair Shop, PhotoAccess, Canberra.

Being observed at work is a challenge UK Frederick embraces. The Camera Unrepair Shop builds on earlier works that include a performance element, such as The Disassembly Line (2022), a one-woman take-down of the modern veneration of standardisation, speed and efficiency in mass production. Through the actions of undoing everyday objects and using their component pieces to reimagine their fragments in blueprints for different way of working, the artist shows the importance of process in her practice.

Yet committing to an artwork that reveals how the magic is done is not without risk. The artist is challenged to make decisions in real time, slowing down and navigating uncertainty while we watch. UK Frederick’s actions hold our attention for the qualities of attentiveness and curiosity brought to the task in hand, and the pleasure we experience though her pleasure in surprise and discoveries made on the fly. It is in this shared space, perhaps in fleeting shared moments, that the work is made, a collaboration between the artist and you, the observer.

Image: UK Frederick, ‘Portrait of a Camera: Canon Powershot’, 2023