Physical Motifs
Let us return to the analogue processes and the forms of dedication they demand, zooming in to the physical endurance behind artistic practices. This exhibition entwines works made with rigorous, embodied actions: the forceful piercing of thick fabric, the relentless pounding of grass in paper making, and the tenacious repetition of rug tufting, unravelling, and weaving. Each recurring visual element is a motif. Each repeated bodily action is a motif.
The repetition in the making does not simply lead to meditative ease but opens multiple sites of what is told or withheld. Alongside sustained, embodied labour, some artists create an intervening space for decolonial agency and critical reflections on dominant values, while others delve into their bodily experience as personal, collective, and relational. The conceptual trajectories of each body of work are divergent, whereas the labour-intensive toil of artmaking constitutes a shared weft running through all practices.
Exhibiting Artists: Arabella Strachan, Mita Chowdhury, publista, Zoe Jones
Curated by Yi Li
Venue: Satellite Projects, T3 Collingwood.
Image 1: Installation view of A Letter to Japan, Positively Here, Hello, Back to Hello by Zone Jones
Image 2: Installation view of The Bedouin and Changing Desire of Colonisation by publista
Image 3: Installation view of Changing Desire for Eternity by publista
Image 4: Installation view of The Tiger and The Heron by Mita Chowdhury
Image 5: Installation view of Parallel Lands, The Moment is Golden, The Centre Cannot Hold by Arabella Strachan
Image 6: Installation view of Changing Desire for Captain Cook by publista
Image 7: Installation view of Between Breath & Bone by Zoe Jones
Photo credit: publista