8 - 25 May, 2008

My Body, My Business:
body as subject, body as medium
(Curator - Grace Kingston)

The Autumn'08 Emerging Curator
Under the ATVP Mentorship for Emerging Curators Program

Opening launch Thursday 8 May 6.00pm - 9.00pm

^{List of contributing artists :
Amanda Lee Boatswain, Shane Brazier, Tallulah Brown, Carlo Catalano, Will Coles, Stella Drivas, Lisa Farrell, Kyle Fernandes, Raymond Haber , Rosita Holmes, Thomas Isaacs, Bernadette Jones, Grace Kingston, Justine Makdessi, Rhodri McCormack, Julian Meagher, MegaBixel, Yiwon Park, Pickafight Books (a Williams), Jess Pickford , Dominic Proust, Tim Rodgers, Beau Scott, Louise Spence Onat, Benjamin Toupein, Oi - Lam Tsui, Jason White, Nel Wolf, Mark Wotherspoon.}

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My Body, My Business

The body is arguably the most common subject of artworks. Alternatively, the body, has also been an ever-present site, or medium, for art making. From the ancient, such as ritual ceremonies and tribal tattoos, to the contemporary, such as Stellarc's performance art and the genre of Abject art, the body - often one's own - continues to fascinate and inspire artists.

Our relationship to our bodies, both in a public and private sense of expression has always been an interesting and contentious issue. The exhibition, My Body, My Business, is a platform to examine the relationship this generation of emerging artists have with the body - body as subject, and body as medium.

The artists were asked to respond to the theme in broad and personal ways, which is reflective in the diverse range of concepts and mediums which include paintings, drawings, printing, sculpture, installation, performance, photographs, film and wall hangings.

The opening night extravaganza saw body painting performances by Amanda-Lee Boatswain with live model, and twins Eleanor and Natasha Wolf exploring notions of identity through the use of reciprocal gestures and mark making. A special suspension performance by members of Newtown's Polymorph Piercing brought a very different meaning to 'hanging out at an art opening' when a live body was suspended in the Centre Gallery from meat hooks!

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List of works:

Emma Doll
Amanda-lee Boatswain , 2007
body paint, foam board, live model named Emma
90cm x 60cm

Artist Statement:
The Body is my business, I am an artist who uses the human form as if it is a medium like paint. With Emma Doll you can see how I have used the human form to express the Doll Stereotype.

CPU (Central Processing Unit)
Beau Scott , 2007
cast aluminium and computer components
86 x 60 x 60 cm

Artist Statement:
This work is about the eventual dissolution of our body's through the progressive integration of technology such as prosthetics, grafts and modifications. As we are at the point in our evolution where technology is dramatically changing the way in which we comprehend and interact with what we call 'the Body'.

Evolution of the Ergonomic Hunchback
Benjamin Toupein , 2008
pencil, ink, charcoal
75 x 110 cm (x 2)

Artist Statement:
I feel there is an Inherent absurdity in the almost addictive reliance on something that is supposed to make life easier. I am fascinated by the somewhat slave/master relationship that is generated between people and their machines, particularly in an office environment. The machines and settings have been removed but their effect on the body remains. The subjects appear distorted, hunched over and somewhat skeletal, highlighting an animal or primeval posture with their spirits broken and their eyes sad. While the technology and business evolves forward the bodies go backwards.

Vanity Table "Anxious Object no 24"
Bernadette Jones , 2007
found objects
dimensions variable

Artist Statement:
Any object has a history, their manufacture, their meaning, and a power of significance in and out of themselves. This acts as a language, an act of human communication, and participation. Domestic materials have a particular relevance to us they can ground us, comfort us or if ambiguously used perhaps unnerve us. There is a metaphysical nature of everyday objects which often remain unnoticed but which mark our existence. These domestic objects refer back to the home and self, body image, inward thoughts and the feelings of comfort and safety. Skin, nails and hair fragments add to a general feeling of discomfort and uneasiness but also allude to the fragility of us as humans and our tentative grasp on coping in this modern world.

Embodiment of Painting
Carlo Catalano ,2008
artline, chocolate powder, allspice, watercolour, sugar on paper
19 x 23 cm

Artist Statement:
The human body has a socialized gender imposed upon it correlating with what is marked as its biological gender. In my upbringing I was denied access to art at school and had to attend a girl's school to pursue it as a subject. The girl's school was exclusive and I had to work in the store room. It used to fascinate me that art itself (and painting) we personified as women, yet women themselves were largely forbidden and excluded from practice in the fine arts. Yet in De La Salle Ashfield, in the 1970s homophobia was so rampant that is was assumed art practice would feminise boys and go against their motto: "Esto Vir" (Be a man). The small drawing is a self portrait as Elisabeth Vigee'-Lebrun who continued to work in an environment more concerned with her gender than her competence as a painter.

Outfit
Dominic Proust , 2005
four colour separation screenprint
38cm x 57cm

Artist Statement:
" Would you believe I made the cuts with a used up old biro?"

Uterus
Grace Kingston , 2007
oil on canvas
90 x 120 cm

Artist Statement:
Uterus explores the liminal space between childhood and adulthood. The latent ideas of sexuality, absorbed in the dreamscape of fairytale, are embraced, falsified and rearticulated in the 'adult' fantasies, perversities and deceptions of post pubescence.

Hula , and, Veil
Jason White , 2008
digital prints
29.7 x 42 cm

Artist Statement:
These two images are part of a series based on the art of burlesque, which I believe is a celebration of the beauty and dexterity of the female body. There is a certain strength and confidence that is exerted when women are free to express themselves with their bodies, often with elaborate sets with lush, colourful costumes, mood-appropriate music, and dramatic lighting, and may even include novelty acts, such as demonstrations of unusual flexibility, to enhance the impact of their performance.

Acknowledgements:
Performers: Lulu Belladonna (Veil) & Kira Hula-la (Hula)
Special Thanks to 34B Burlesque & Dr Sketchys anti-art school.

Cuntface
Jessica Pickford , 2008
latex
45 x 35 x 25 cm

Artist Statement:
C untface was born of an insult and became a celebration. Cuntface is about pride in womanhood and in sexuality. It rejects the word Cunt as an insult and playfully reclaims representations of women and their genitals from the pornographic or scientific representations we are used to seeing.

Meagher, Quentin
Julian Meagher , 2007
oil on linen
74 x 56 cm

Artist Statement:
' Meagher, Quentin' is from a recent series that brings figurative painting into a scientific and clinical register. In this work there lies a level of complexity that leaves the viewer wondering what exactly the power of the portrait is. The life size painting of the artist’s brother brings the personality and corporeality of the body into play, as well as its relationship to the viewer. The face is not a normal portrait though, eyes closed, his corpse-like expression could be the corpse pose of Tuesday's yoga class or that of the mortuary table. Meagher confuses the limits of portraiture and clinical imagery in this painting, seeing the abject as both beautiful and familiar.

Foreshortened Self
Justine Makdessi , 2005
50 x 40cm
paperclay, acrylic paint

Artist Statement:
Perception is unique to the individual, and the body as a subject is by no means exempt. In the act of peering downward, masses of skin vanish behind disproportionate protrusions and these advancing planes of fat and flesh create a new, arabesque and abstracted form seemingly independent of the 'original'. By rendering only that which can be seen, from one angle the forms hold the illusory potential to be whole bodies, once viewed from any other angle, however, they become figurative abstractions. These Frankenstein forms are my reality; my body.

Foetus
Kyle Fernandes , 2007
gouache and pen on paper from a novel
21 x 16 x 2.5 cm

Artist Statement:
The artwork is of a foetus and drawn sketchy and rough to show the first construction lines of a human being.

Sorry mum (taking it back)
Lisa Farrell , 2007/8
performance, video

Artist Statement:
"Sorry mum (taking it back)" is the re-worked video documentation of an endurance performance that took place in 2007. The original performance involved me repeatedly slapping myself in the face, a process by which I hoped to detach my mind from influencing the conclusion of events. Each slap became a stubborn assertion in an effort to conquer my subjective perceptions of my physical self. However, as the title suggests, and on reflection, I felt guilty for inflicting this on myself. As such, I attempted to erase part of the performance. In a process de-literalisation, I removed the individual slaps and reversed the footage.

All You Can Eat #1-5
Louise Spence Onat , 2006
c-type prints
40 x 50 cm

Artist Statement:
Although women photographers have touched on contemporary matters of gender and identity since the 1970's, it is still a current and dynamic issue in our society. Artifice, pornography, and confessional exhibitionism are critically examined. Also addressed is the current culture of food exclusivity and food denial, contrasted against the ritualistic bonding that food historically had in our culture? This series satirises the western art tradition of female subjects role in art as passive objects of viewing pleasure for males.

The Tattooed Girl
MegaBixel , 2008
digital photography
71 x 60 cm (x3)

Artist Statement:
The simple expression of a girl and her love of her winged tattoos.

Here I am a Girl
Tsui Oi-Lam , 2008
acrylic on canvas
61x 76 cm

Artist Statement:
In the natural world, human beings do not have an exact yin and yang nor gender classification. They more or less would have female and male elements, such as differences in appearance. However, features in personality are blurry in classified female or male. Human society used to classify gender in an extreme way, depending on one's sexual organs. Therefore, trans-sexuality became an issue that was not easily accepted by society. People who identify as being of trans-sexuality aim to show the world who they actually want to be. In my painting, female movement and body in Marina Abramovic's movie "Destricted" has been applied, as to apply the meaning of trans-sexuality, showing their preference of body to the society.

Video enables the capture and control of these actions.

Registering them as recognisable images with very different meanings.

Exhibited are 12 video performance works in total, 3 per screen which are timed to change and interact together. Merging these moving images allows the viewer to be constantly challenged by what they see.

(Self) Control - Pig Wall-Hanging, Corsages & Ragdolls
Raymond Haber , 2008
acrylic painting on recycled ply-board, recycled clothes, flannelette, recycled rags, and recycled mattress protectors
58 x 71 x 20 cm

Artist Statement:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmOrWG2FTbg

In a box
Rhodri McCormack ,1999
10 x 10 cm
etching

Artist Statement:
My work is about the way I feel and the things I see and the things I do and on occasion I masturbate.

Skin Bits #1 & #2 , and, Jellypuss, #1, #2, #3
Shane Brazier , 2008
pigmented silicone, pigmented urethane paint on wood, pigmented silicone on perplex
dimensions variable

Artist Statement:
"Pink Bits/ Jellypuss", are sculptural impressions of the full frontal sexual aggressiveness of hard-core pornography upon a young persons mind. At the point when innocence and curiosity meets confronting eroticism. Beginning an exploration of deviant discovery into the fixation of sexual circles inside social squares.

Transforming the tormented childhood images captured on the pages of porno magazines into a sensual flesh pink framed, skin toned lips. Feeding the ora l fetish whilst paving a perverted path to the endless beauty which is "Skin Bits"
SKIN BITS? DON'T BITE!

Man-nequin 1, Man-nequin 2
Stella Drivas , 2006
medium format film digital imaging via photoshop
60 X 100cm

Artist Statement:
My work explores the unquestioning faith general society has in advertising and media. Fusing human features with bodies of mannequins I aim to illustrate how unrealistic people's expectations of their attributes are , especially when contrasted with attributes they are endowed with. Without explicitly telling us what to be, mannequins are insidious persuasions of what we should be: 190cms tall, with a twenty-six inch waist. Despite these unrealistic dimensions consumers rarely question the ubiquitous display of Mannequins, they signify a mould that our economy wants us to fit - showing us what we "want to be". Mannequins typify Body perpetuating Business.

Axewound , and, Furburgers
Tallulah Brown , 2004
c-type photographs
70cm X 80cm

Artist Statement:
Furburgers and Axewound are part of a series called Pussy Talk, which aims to undermine the derogatory terms used to describe female genitalia through the use of humour. The work is inspired by an incident that occurred when I was 13. The only female amongst a group of older males, I felt mortified when one of my companions yelled out to two females walking past, "Show us your blood hole, show us where the axe hit you." The images are a tribute to the success of feminism, which allows women to be empowered and sexually attractive. Deprecating attitudes are redundant when they are easily mocked.

Circumcision
Tom Isaacs , 2008
performance / video

Artist Statement:
The performance piece, Circumcision, explores notions of catharsis and the possibility of its attainment. Through the work I engage with theories relating to catharsis, particularly psychoanalysis and Judaeo-Christian theology, borrowing their language and formal structure to articulate my concerns. The performance is simultaneously an articulation of my desire or need for transformative healing and an attempt to achieve a cathartic experience. In Circumcision these desires are converted into ritualised actions, mirroring the processes of sublimation and fetishisation of the body. Painting my arm signifies the physicalisation of a psychical wound in an attempt to remove it.

'Doing just fine without you...'
Will Coles , 2007
screen print of collage on archive cotton paper
30 x 39 cm

Artist Statement:
My work is minimalist mash-ups, using only two or three elements to create a whole. Anything more could be too crowded & the meaning, message or truth may get lost or drowned out. Those that talk softly usually have so much more worth hearing than those that shout or seek to bury you in paragraphs.

The Artist Under the House , and, The Artist in the Secret Box
Yiwon Park , 2008
acrylic on canvas
51 x 61 cm

Artist Statement:
My paintings are focused on finding personal identity through the journey of life experience, e specially concentrating on bringing more emotions and thoughts, which could express notions of how it is to be an artist by painting figures of my own body as a subject with chosen objects .

It is like creating images of hybrid o bjects using both representational figures such as an artist's body and symbolic objects or abstract ed imagery which represents my thoughts and emotions.