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An exhibition at ANCA Gallery, Canberra
1 – 13 April 2008
I wish I was David Bowie is an exhibition that de-skins the surfaces of the everyday. Objects, video and photography explore the constructions of gender and self by examining the personal objects of intimacy.
The persona of David Bowie the pop-icon icon acts as a focus for our personal wish fulfillment, our constructed self identity from the popular culture surrounding us. A persona which we all construct from interactions with the everyday.
Toys begin as a form of social construction, of context given to us to engender learning through play. A way of relating to the world we are born into. A ready-made meaning that elucidates the world of culture, a script for the skins we wear. By de-skinning these personas, what is left? The unnerving familiarity of something recognisable but not known?
The viewmaster series represents a loss of innocence, a form of nostalgia. I only see a flat world, a half world. The depth of things becomes a surface, a skin. The ways of seeing an exteriority, a surface of things, the skin we put on, creates us, to others and ourselves.
Thanks.
This exhibition would not have been possible without the kind and generous support of many people in the arts community.
I would like to thank: Sean Booth and his photographic supplies (especially his exploding lights); my colleagues at the School of Art Gallery, James and Julie; Neal and Stuart at ANU Photographic services for their technical suuport in viewmaster construction; the lads in the Inkjet Research Facility, Robert, David and Jason; Geoff Farquhar-Still for last minute installation prowess; and not leastly my partner Lucy Quinn for support and patience and picking up my lost hair when needed……And my Mum xox