Anywhere, Elsewhere
Focussing on fresh, new Queensland talent, Anywhere Elsewhere, curated by Tess Maunder opens today at Jan Murphy Gallery.
Bringing together a trio of artists, Bridie Gillman, Claudia Greathead and Sancintya Simpson, the exhibition is driven by a cohesive enquiry into ideologies of place and cultural identity.
An artist whose practice embodies a hybrid identity and transcultural experiences, in this exhibition Bridie Gillman draws from her background of living in both Australia and Indonesia. Her photographic works capture objects and materials that elicit memory, in this case from her residencies in Indonesia, Japan and Istanbul. Striking in their simplicity, Gillman’s works show an eye for capturing the uncanny, the hesitant and unknown in the everyday. Furthering her practice, Gillman will be undertaking a residency at Rimbun Dahan at the Hotel Penanga in Malaysia later this month.
Alongside Gillman’s subtle works, Sancintya Simpson combines photo-media and video-based critical practice to investigate the complexities of race and identity within Australia. Inspired by her own hybrid-cultural inheritance Simpson explores lived experiences of this, aiming to create a dialogue on society’s concealed prejudices.
Painter Claudia Greathead’s practice takes a more hands on approach as she appropriates and recontextualises imagery that play with the line between figuration and abstraction. Critiquing constructed cultural values, the beauty norm is challenged, as well as its portrayal in the Western media.
Dynamic in its diversity this exhibition is a telling insight into emerging contemporary artists who face both local and transnational issues in the construction of their practice. Bright, didactic and innovative, be prepared to be engaged in an active dialogue about the many new and complex cultural spaces within Australian national identity.
EXHIBITION
Anywhere, Elsewhere
4-8 August 2015
Jan Murphy Gallery
Image 1: Bridie Gillman,Gold (Shibuya), 2014
Image 2: Bridie Gillman, Waiting, 2014
Courtesy the artist and Jan Murphy Gallery
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