Exhibition dates: 5 Feb - Sun 16 Feb, 2020
Space 1
Long way round
Jennifer Tarry-Smith
Jennifer Tarry-Smith is a Melbourne based artist working in the medium of printmaking and drawing. She produces works that are abstract distillations of her experience of place and memory. The sequence of impressions are informed by Jennifer’s recent travel’s to Europe. In the arabesque line, the arches of moorish architecture are recalled; the soft ochres and turquoise colours are reminiscent of the painted houses of Venice; the velvety texture of pastels and lithography recalling the patina of age. Like a view glimpsed through half closed eyes, there is a sense of recognition of feeling or emotion, the shadowy imprint of the spirit of a place in her work.
Space 2
Pussy
Grace Ware
‘PUSSY’ is a space prompted by the patriarchy and its wonderfully excessive vocabulary around the multiple words used to describe a ‘vagina’. The use of the word vagina has always caused cultural controversy, these cultural issues have sparked a rise to the development of an incredible range of slang terms for the vagina. Despite the force driven behind these words our power does not always lay with them. When you hear the words “pussy, vagina, cunt, cooch, fanny, furry taco” how many of these words hold a negative connotation? How many offend you? How many do you avoid? How many make you laugh? When confronted with these words, do they fuel you’re your shame? Some may spark a lived reality which confronts your discomfort. ‘PUSSY’ is a space which has been made to reclaim the power that these words have held over us and celebrate our vast, complex dictionary of vaginas. It challenges of the stigma around our pussy vocabulary and encourages the active use of these words in and the power of humour to reclaim our shame. ‘PUSSY’ grabs the lingering smell of our pussy squeamishness lurking amongst our current climate and champions its capacity to empower and teach us.
Space 3
Smelly
Evangeline Clark
My intention is for my work to act as a spatial disruption through the ephemeral invasion of colour. My work examines the boundaries between the decorative and the feminine, the grotesque and the pretty, the meaningless and the significant. My aim is to redefine intense shapes and colours not as pejoratively ‘girly’, silly and hollow, but as inherently momentous and powerful. I use the saturated colour of the acrylic paint and the fluffy texture of the faux fur to explore the idea of excessive prettiness that verges on being tacky and ugly.
This installation propels the viewer’s sensory involvement past just passively observing. This work smells and each colour radiates a different scent. Viewers are encouraged to step onto the floor work and engage with the smells emerging from the work.