Pamela Kleemann-Passi is a Naarm/ Melbourne-based photographer and visual artist whose interdisciplinary practice expands photography into sculptural, textile and installation forms.
Her work explores themes of the human body, commodification, medical science and cultural identity. In 2021 she co-founded Art-Science-Alliance Inc. with Carolyn Lewens to foster collaborations between artists and scientists.
Pamela is a long-term member of ArtsHub. Her work can be explored on Instagram and online.
If you’re an ArtsHub member and would like to be profiled on the site, email us with Meet the Members in the subject line.
Pamela Kleemann-Passi: video transcript
So I decided to work with human skin …
I am Pamela Kleemann-Passi. I’m a visual artist and photographer. I’ve been doing that practice for 40-plus years.
I decided to work with human skin, creating products that would normally be made from animal skin, because I felt like at the time, and even more so now, the human body was becoming a commodity that could be bought and sold – in sports, in fashion, in so many areas, even in health.
Because I was working with skin, hair grows naturally from the skin and it adds a more textural quality.
Pamela Kleemann-Passi: liminal space
I’m really interested in this idea of the kind of liminal space between what people perceive as being gorgeous and voluptuous and beautiful, and the opposite of that. When hair is no longer on the body, it becomes grotesque and vile and repulsive and all of those things. I’m really interested in that sort of space between and what people think about that, because hair is such a fascinating commodity.
Hair seems to be very in vogue at the moment – lots of people doing things with fashion and hair.
ArtsHub: Meet the members: Susie Fagan, comedian
When people see the work – you don’t realise, when you first glance at it, that it’s actually made using human hair. And when people kind of realise, they sort of do this double-take where they’re kind of intrigued but repulsed at the same time. And I just love that space – it totally fascinates me. And why not human hair? It’s such a sustainable product. You know, there’s an endless supply of it.
There’s so much waste. My practice has become much more about these bold conversation-starters, about the possibilities of things, things that people don’t like to talk about, things that people find confronting. I’m really wanting to tease out those ideas within the work that that I produce.
Pamela Kleemann-Passi: advice for creatives
Find it. Find what your passion is in life and just go with it because that will bring something out of you to give to the world. We all have gifts to give to people and creativity is a fantastic way of offering that, from within ourselves to outside ourselves, to the community.
ArtsHub: Meet the Members: Ross Page, founder of the Made in the West Film Festival
Creativity is the basis for all manner of innovation in the world. But there’s not enough encouragement for creativity within finding solutions for things. I think that’s one of the things that my art practice is telling me.
That’s one of the reasons I’m on ArtsHub as well – it’s a great opportunity to find out what people are doing, what opportunities there are, what you can give back to that kind of niche environment – the ripple effect of that out into the wider community and how important inclusive creativity is.
