Regenerate - The Hold Artspace

Regenerate
June 12 - June 21
This exhibition catalogue documents
Regenerate, a group exhibition curated by Luke
Kidd held at The Hold Artspace.
Regenerate featured work by Benjamin Crowley,
Katelyn-Jane Dunn, Kristian Fracchia, Dominic
Reidy, Emma Rochester and Angela Rossitto.
The exhibition opened on 12 June 2014 and
continued until 21 June 2014.
Front cover
Dominic Reidy Reach 4, 2014
Over page
Katelyn-Jane Dunn Sugar, 2013
Next page
Emma Rochester Re-imagining Feminine
Landscapes, 2014
Luke Kidd & Kylie Spear
0414 441 922
www.theholdartspace.com
[email protected]
Level 2, 274 Montague Road
West End Q 4101
The Resurrection
of Narrative
by Marisa Georgiou
“… There has been a disenchantment with theories … that portray the self as a
mere “point” acted upon by external forces. Narrative, by contrast, emphasizes
the active, self-shaping quality of human thought, the power of stories to create
and refashion personal identity.¹”
Regenerate offers six wide-ranging perspectives on corporeality and
consciousness. The human body is the intersection of many different
ideas: mortality, sexuality, identity. This intricate melange of concepts is
explored through the dissection and utilisation of narrative philosophies,
both personal and cultural.
On a base level, our bodies are biological vessels. Influenced by the
Frankenstein text, a novel designed to help us understand our humanity
through the advanced potentials of science, Angela Rossito’s work
looks to dissect the concept of the “spark of life”. Frankenstein’s beast
is a monster of human design: the scientist is portrayed as an artist; as
the Creator. As the scientist manipulates raw materials into imitating life,
Rossito attempts to understand how raw materials, through the hand of
the artist, come to imitate art.
These works reference organic cellular structure and neurons, but
are plainly combined with technological components. More than just
biology and science however, the Frankenstein text explores themes
of phenomenology and consciousness. In the text, this constructed
creature is unexpectedly found to be a sentient, sapient being. Likewise,
Rossito’s creatures are conscious; reacting to the audiences’ presence.
Angela Rossitto Beings and the mother ship, 2014
Personal narratives are instrumental in understanding our humanity in a
world governed by unwavering mathematics and science:
“Narrative seems to offer a way out of the reification that “mechanistic” models
of human behaviour may unwittingly impose²”.
It is part of the human condition that we are uniquely aware of ourselves
as temporal creatures: creatures each imbued with a sense of history
and narrative. By allowing the work to look recycled and handmade,
Rossito has instilled a narrative into them: they were “created”. Though
these forms are not humanoid in design, the audience still must wonder
whether these creatures are sentient too.
Taking a different approach, Kristian Fracchia explores the corporeal
experience of adolescence through technology. Based on selfobservation, these self-portraits reflect on the construction of sexual
identity in the age of information. These images document fleeting
moments in the narrative of a young man during times of intimacy and
anxiety.
Drawing itself is regenerative and transformative; the artist often finds
that it enhances perception and insights into the subject. Not only
does the drawing medium enhance the aura of affection intrinsic to this
particular work; it stands as the physical outcome of direct investigation
into the ever-changing self.
“Our narrative identities are neither God-given nor innate, but are painstakingly
acquired as we grow, develop, and interact with the people around us.³”
Sometimes, however, interactions are one-sided: one individual
responding to an image of another. This skewed interaction is wholly
apparent here. The starkly illustrated isolation and vulnerability of a young
body is juxtaposed against the mental image of bodies we imagine that
he is viewing: pornographic, entirely demystified, hegemonic masculine
and feminine constructions.
Kristian Fracchia Untitled (self-portrait #2), 2014
Dominic Reidy further utilises contemporary examples of heroism and
masculinity to bring attention to pressures in masculine identity, and its
relationship to the physical body. In this case, he appropriates athletic
media imagery; specifically that of Australian football players.
Reidy seeks to disrupt and decontextualize a common cultural narrative
by removing these iconic images from their usual surroundings. Instead,
these small male figures are detached from their uniforms and situated
against delicate pastel colours and floral forms in attempt to undermine
the machismo that is so central to Australian sporting culture. These
figures are portrayed as clumsy, vulnerable and fragile; surrounded by
feminised imagery.
Cultural context and narrative are undeniably important to our personal
bodily experience, but also in the portrayal of a body, and formation of a
perceived identity:
“Masculinity is not a solid, immovable construction. An individual does not
guard one definitive gender position: from moment to moment, forces redictate,
replace, and reimagine its reconstructing.⁴”
Where these figures were originally portrayed powerfully jumping over
each other to catch the ball, they now look as if they are all falling
through space. In decontextualisation to such a degree, Reidy can
subvert the idea that gender constructions are eternally unchanging
and innate; recognising how important environment can become in the
portrayal of gender, and how cultural hegemonies have the power to
regressively influence identity.
Dominic Reidy Anemone 1 and Reach 2, 2014
Benjamin Crowley, too, explores common expressions of masculinity
in Australian visual culture. Juxtaposing iconic images of the Australian
bushman from Baz Luhrmann’s Australia with billboard ads for male
virility, he seeks to alert the viewer to the (often conflicting) ways culture
perceives hegemonic masculinity. These billboards are an advertisement
specifically designed to play on men’s fundamental insecurities: that
without certain physical qualities, it negatively impacts your personal
worth.
The societal construct of a “real man” is all too often associated with
notions of idealised physical strength and phallic performance. In the
construction of identity, gender is certainly important. But how important
is physical fitness, strength or virility when forming philosophies of “self”?
Benjamin Crowley Untitled (car seat) and Billboards, 2014
Katelyn-Jane Dunn also looks at the coming of age transition in
her series Sugar. These photographic works look at some of the
contextual narratives that define an identity. Themes of femininity,
family histories and sexuality are all explored in these works. It is plain
that many themes wind their way throughout. As one views the series,
the mind automatically tries to decipher the relationships between the
photographs and place a story onto it; a natural attempt to decipher
these images which we know must be connected. It seems almost
surreal with such strong use of symbolism, but narrative clarity only just
out of reach. Though the work is highly auto-biographical, the lack of
any identifying features and purposeful ambiguity allows the audience to
place themselves within it.
These images are intrinsically personal, a trait that has emerged in
feminist art and literature over recent decades:
“… the conviction that “the personal is political” has sensitized feminists to
narrative. Telling, listening to, and analysing women’s life stories has become
important to both feminist political practise and feminist scholarship.⁵”
This is not to argue that Katelyn has an agenda. It is apparent, though,
that these narratives allow viewers to contextualise and therefore
empathise with her; some would argue a more effective approach than
those which are governed by rules and in-depth formal analysis.
Katelyn-Jane Dunn Sugar, 2013
Emma Rochester highlights the link between the body, place and history
through her own printed corsets. She re-imagines diverse landscapes
through performance walks, redrafting charts and narratives as she
wanders. These works challenge traditional mapping practises: how
straight lines and mathematical principles are used to depict a living,
endlessly changing landscape where precision is wholly rejected by
nature. Rochester disregards these rules, shamelessly and organically
scrawling and mark-making on top of the charts. The feminine body has
historically been used as allegory for the natural environment; the corsets
seen here bringing a female bodily interpretation to the contemporary
maps that are printed on the material.
The temporality of the human condition is inescapably linked with
narrative consciousness:
“The conscious present is that of a body impacted in a world and moving, in
process, in that world⁶”.
Rochester views her body as more than a vessel, it also serves as a
conduit; channelling natural energies from her surroundings as she walks.
She walks in touch with her consciousness: that is to say, she knows that
consciousness dictates we must always be some place at some time.
Identity cannot emerge from abstraction. This is why geographical and
cultural identities are important; we need situatedness to form a coherent
notion of self. These are certainly vast issues that the young artists in
this exhibition are wrestling with, but the use of narrative allows them
to effectively explore, subvert and challenge existing notions of identity,
contributing to growth on both personal and socio/cultural spectrums.
Emma Rochester Re-imagining Feminine Landscapes, 2008 - 14
Crites, S 1997 ‘The Narrative Quality of Experience’ in L Hinchman & S Hinchman
(eds) ‘Memory, Identity, Community- The Idea of Narrative in the Human
Sciences’, State University of New York Press, New York, pp. 26-50
Hinchman, L & Hinchman, S 1997 ‘Memory, Identity, Community- The Idea of
Narrative in the Human Sciences’, State University of New York Press, New York
Novitz, D 1997 ‘Art, Narrative and Human Nature’ in L Hinchman & S Hinchman
(eds) ‘Memory, Identity, Community- The Idea of Narrative in the Human
Sciences’ , State University of New York Press, New York, pp. 143-160
Watson, M & Shaw, E 2011 ‘Performing American Masculinities: The 21st-century
Man in Popular Culture’ Indiana University Press, Indiana
¹ Hinchman &Hinchman 1997 p xiv
² Hinchman &Hinchman 1997 p xiv
³ Novitz, D 1997 p150
⁴ Watson, M & Shaw, E 2011 p1
⁵ Hinchman &Hinchman 1997 p122
⁶ Crites, S 1997 p39
Angela Rossitto Beings and the mother ship, 2014