Untitled #3 is a chromogenic photograph made in 2010 by Malaysian- Australian artist Selina Ou whose work explores the innate human need to belong, support and find solace in others. 

Selina Ou is best known for her large-scale, documentary-style colour photographs of people and this work was made during an experimental time during her practice when in a period of significant pain and personal loss.

Untitled #3 is 60 cms high and 40 cms wide.

The image is a tableau: 2 subjects, a female adult piggybacking another slightly shorter adult on their back. 

They are poised in profile, heads facing the left.

The taller adult is folded, leaning at an almost right angle for the weight they bear. Their eyes are closed.  

The other adult’s face is turned away. Their head nests in the nook of the carrier’s nape.

They are wearing a white long-sleeved top, denim blue jeans and have dark short hair, their feet are bare.

The leaning adult is wearing a sky-blue long-sleeved shirt and dark grey jeans. Strands of their fringe have fallen forward from their tied-up hair, resulting from the lean. Their feet are bare also.

They are central in the photograph, standing on paint splattered old wooden floorboards, in a space filled with fresh natural light. 

The area they are within in the image frame, is about 1 metre squared. There is a blank white wall behind them.

The piggybacked figure has their left arm curled at the elbow cusping the shoulder of the carrier. 

Their other arm curves under and around to rest their right hand on the other person’s forehead, as if nursing this area soothingly.

The leaning person’s hands gently grasp the others ankles, providing security to the piggybacked straddle. 

There is a sense of equilibrium and safety in their co-dependent connection expressive of: compassion and care, the balance of carrying and giving weight, of sustaining and surrendering to rest, whilst supporting eithers strengths and vulnerabilities, concurrently enduring and embracing their own and together states.

The Audio Description of Untitled #3 has been written, voiced and produced by Nilgun Guven from Vitae Veritas 2023 for Boroondara Arts for their exhibition ‘Our Place: Celebrating 20 Years of the Town Hall Gallery.’ This work is part of the Town Hall Gallery Collection.