By Fiona McGregor — 20 November, 2019
‘I am fascinated by dualisms, mirror images, blindness and invisibility, subject/object reversals, the roles of artist and audience and all my work, since my earliest performances of the 1970s exacerbates such tensions, as the deeper structure of both thought and image.’ Mike Parr, (January 1998) Entering the space, you see a large rectangular installation…
By Fiona McGregor — 8 November, 2019
I have to start with the best: Betty Grumble’s Unshame Machine, in which she did a record 1000 cunt prints on a machine resembling a lat pulldown, accompanied by three of the finest new performers in that ever-evolving organism we loosely term the Sydney queer underground. Stelly G, whom many know from hosting at the…
By Fiona McGregor — 22 March, 2019
‘Since fun is pleasure without guilt, as in the euphemistic ‘fun-loving’, we are bound to feel it must be inherently trivial; in a Judeo-Christian culture, half the fun of the thing is the guilt, anyway.’ Angela Carter, ‘Fun Fair’ There’s a new show in town. There’s a new town too. An hour and a half…
By Fiona McGregor — 16 February, 2018
I first saw Ghenoa Gela dancing on a podium at Monsta Gras, an alternative Mardi Gras party. Funky, chunky, spunky, she was a breath of fresh air in a queer scene dominated by white faces despite its best intentions. Wearing fluoro, in blacklight, to the theme of Rainbow Nuclear Family, Gela’s form became completely abstracted….
By Fiona McGregor — 25 January, 2018
From a distance Katharina Grosse’s installation painting at Carriageworks looks a bit of a mess. Swathes of canvas draped floor to ceiling fill almost half the length of the decommissioned railway site. Mostly white, with seams showing, sprays of colour emerge from the folds. Closer, these shapes become more intriguing. There are slits through which…