Domestic disharmony at the University Art Gallery
5 March 2007
 |
"I want to break free (Clean Sheets), 2006, by Lily Hibberd from the University Art Gallery's new exhibition. |
A provocative new exhibition, opening at the University Art Gallery on Friday, 9 March, 2007, throws a disturbing and intriguing new light on the domestic front.
The last thing I remember… from the Monash University Museum of Art features scenes of illicit night encounters, confronting domestic entanglements and menacing bedroom scenes in works from Melbourne-based artists Jane Burton, Lily Hibberd and Brie Trenerry.
The multi-media exhibition, curated by Dr Kyla McFarlane, is the first collaboration between the Monash University Museum of Art and the Sydney University Art Gallery, and according to Senior Curator at the Sydney University Art Gallery, Louise Tegart, marks the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the two galleries.
"The quality of the work and the artists featured in The last thing I remember… were very appealing for the University Art Gallery," says Louise Tegart. "The exhibition explores subversive ideas of domesticity and re-examines the domestic point of view from three artists who have grown up in an era of feminist ideas."
The artists use video, photography and painting to explore unsettling suburban psychodramas and disturbances in, outside and around the home in the exhibition. "Their subjects are trapped in familiar environments in each instance made strange by desire, dream or anxiety," says Dr McFarlane. "Events occur out of sight or without easy explanation and the air is heavy with the weight of expectation and anxiety."
 |
Jane Burton embraced film noir elements in "I did it for you, No. 2" (2005). Courtesy of the artist, Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne. |
In Jane Burton's I did it for you, the drama is set in Melbourne's outer-suburban fringe through a series of black-and-white photographs which employ elements of film noir and takes viewers on a voyeuristic encounter.
Brie Trenerry goes into the bedroom of a burgeoning psycho-drama in Sleep Paralysis using a projected short film that begins with a sinister image of a fly on the palm of a woman's motionless hand. "Like Hibberd and Burton, Trenerry investigates what it might be like if we gave ourselves over to the shadowy, claustrophobic realm of the interior," Dr McFarlane says.
The exhibition will be officially opened on Friday, 9 March, 2007 at 5pm with a free public curator's talk by Dr Kyla McFarlane, who will discuss specific works from The last thing I remember… and the themes behind the exhibition. Dr McFarlane's talk will be followed by opening night drinks. The exhibition closes on 20 April, 2007.
Editor's note:
The University Art Gallery is situated in the War Memorial Arch at the southern end of the University of Sydney's historic Quadrangle. It is open from Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and the first Sunday of each month from noon to 4pm. Free admission.
For further information, interview requests or images or to RSVP to attend the opening night of The last thing I remember… please contact Katrina O'Brien, media officer, Sydney University Museums on (02) 9036 7842 or University Art Gallery senior curator Louise Tegart on (02) 9351 4004.
Contact: Katrina O'Brien
Phone: 02 9036 7842