Running men: The precarious, paranoid body in screen culture

This paper discusses my video installation Running Men as an example of how an artist’s appropriative engagements with screen images of the perilous body can reflect the technological zeitgeist of the last hundred years but also create a space of meditative and mediated reflection in Slavoj Žižek’s “endlessness” of the present-future. In this artwork, iconic male characters from Hollywood films are recontextualised to create infinitely looping scenes of running; trapping the characters in a kind of Nietchzen eternal recurrence that suspends them between impending violence and uncertain futures. Stemming primarily from my investigation into anxiety as a shared social experience, one perhaps primed by the increasing intensity of visual culture in the 21st century, these digitally reconfigured bodies become avatars or surrogates for myself, and for the viewer. Through selective editing, these emblematic figures are caught in a space of relentless confusion and paranoia – they run with, and from anxiety. They are never caught by any unseen pursuers, but are equally unable to catch up to any unseen goal. These figures map an historical trajectory of violence and masculinity as it has been projected through various iterations of screen culture Simultaneously, as celebrities, they are also fictions of the media sphere, both real and ethereal, they are impossible to grasp but paradoxically are objects of identification and emulation. In this duality, the work also references cinema’s tangled conflation of character and celebrity identity. This discussion will address the two distinct but connected sites and activities of body/image engagement. Firstly, the artistic process and conceptual ramifications of this activity, and secondly in the artwork’s potential as an installation to provide an opportunity for the viewer (like the artist) to reflect on the constructed-ness and complicated power structures at play in the representation of a gendered body.

Reverie I

Reverie I is a large-scale public art work commissioned by the Brisbane City Council for permanent installation on the Gardens Point Road Plinth adjacent to QUT Gardens Point campus in Brisbane. The work forms part of the artist's ongoing exploration of the methodology of self-portraiture and amorphous form. In this work, sculpted curls of hair have been assembled according to contours of its constituent cast panels - their capacity to nest with one another determined the final form of the work. The resulting mass of curls resembles both an oversized wig, a withered mulberry and a leaden cloud to invoke notions of movement, reflection and temporality. From the didactic panel: "The curls of Reverie I are derived from 18th century sculptural portraiture. The twisting forms of the highly styled wig known as a periwig were abstracted and inventive, while also bestowing an air of intellectual authority. Curls also evoke two aspects of this particular site: the erratic movement of water associated with the complex tidal movements of Brisbane River, and a state of mental reflection relevant to both the nearby university grounds (where intellectual work takes place) and the riverside pathway (a site for daydreaming)."

Catacoustics

'Catacoustics' was an exhibition of sculptural assemblages and photographs that continues my exploration of self-portraiture and the sculptural object. The exhibition was presented as part of the 2015 MetroArts curated exhibition program (Curator: Amy-Clare McCarthy). The work specifically extends the formal vocabulary of my studio practice to incorporate a replica casting of the Ian Fairweather memorial rock at Bribie Island, Queensland. The resulting casts are combined with a series of heptagonal forms derived from the memorial plinth and other sundry components taken from previous exhibitions.,The final arrangement of this diverse field of elements are determined in part by their formal properties (e.g. their capacity to nest, prop, balance, support each other) frequently also taking the horizontal/vertical and the orientation of surrounding walls as formal cues. In so doing, the body of work acts as a manifestation of object-agency. Within this studio methodology, practice is theorised as a site for the interplay of non-human agents. The resulting exhibition thus acts a meditation on the ontology of art practice, conceived as a 'topology' - a fluid network of relationships forged largely by objects.

Chasing Infinite Junctures

A collaborative solo exhibition at Boxcopy, Brisbane. For Chasing Infinite Junctures, Caitlin Franzmann presented an installation as an open site for affect, response and collaboration. The exhibition began with an architectural intervention, which was available for exchange and transformation involving other artists, events and the sensing body of the audience. For five weeks, Caitlin provided a space for new junctures to unfold – artists including Andrew McLellan, Ross Manning, Henry Mills, Louise Bennett, Leena Riethmuller and Sandra Selig will gather, experiment and create in the space.

Dark Mess

In a world consumed by quests for happiness and personal growth, Grant Stevens’ new exhibition, Dark Mess, delves into the psychic troubles that sometimes lie below the canopy. Working predominantly with video, photography and installation, Stevens’ practice explores how the verbal and non-verbal languages of popular screen culture interface with contemporary subjectivity. This exhibition continues Stevens’ interest in the natural environment as a catalyst and proxy for introspection and self-discovery. Pushing sound and image to distortion, Dark Mess offers a disquieting journey through the undergrowth.

Quick Draw

'Quick Draw' is an installation integrating large-scale fabric works along with a lecture performance recorded as a digital video. 'Quick Draw' engages pictorial, literary and vernacular quotations in order to replay and reveal the complexities of gender politics, representation and language. In particular, it examines the relationship between abstraction, feminism and painting, following through an iconoclastic impulse that is at play in these histories. 'Quick Draw' was developed and presented as a solo exhibition for Seventh Gallery, Melbourne in 2015. 'Quick Draw II' was revised for the exhibition ‘Like A Burden’, held at Metro Arts Galleries, Brisbane in 2015.

Unthinkable II

'Unthinkable II' is an installation integrating a large scale fabric work along with a lecture performance, recorded as a digital video. This work critically examines the engendering of language in relation to histories of conceptual art and abstract painting, reframing material language as part of a broader practice strategy to re-perform a subjective feminist archive. This installation was developed and presented as a solo exhibition for Blindside Gallery, Melbourne in 2015.

Like a burden

'Like A Burden' was an exhibition developed and presented for Metro Arts Galleries in 2015. It drew together several large scale fabric works 'Heavy Thinking'; 'Quick Draw II' and 'Well Hung' within the gallery space, along with a large series of ink and pencil drawings and a lecture performance recorded and projected as a digital video. This body of work foregrounds the activist feminist voice through quotation, citation and reiteration and is part of a broader practice strategy to re-perform a subjective feminist archive.

Unthinkable

'Unthinkable' is an installation comprising drawings and fabric works, which were placed onto a large-scale wall painting. This work engages with the gender politics of art criticism through strategies of redrawing, in particular the commentary that Helen Frankenthaler's painting practice was 'unthinkable' without Jackson Pollock. 'Unthinkable' was developed and presented as part of BEAF 2013: Brisbane Experimental Art Festival, curated by Rachael Parsons and Stephen Russell, held at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts.

Extended Conversation Pieces

'Extended Conversation Pieces' brings together conversations about art, and conversation as art. The exhibition features collaborative works by six Brisbane-based artists, Catherine or Kate (Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft), Scott Ferguson (Erika Scott and Brooke Ferguson) and Courtney Coombs and Caitlin Franzmann. These artists engage with ideas of contemporary feminism through processes of dialogue and exchange; exploring subjectivity, humour and intimacy in performance and installation works. 'Extended Conversation Pieces' showcases the distinctive approach to contemporary practice at Boxcopy, an artist run initiative focused on supporting and commissioning new experimental works by Australian artists, and engaging with collaborative processes and practices. This project was commissioned by the Melbourne Art Foundation and presented at the MAF Project Rooms, Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne in 2014.

Conversation Pieces

This curated exhibition presented works by Australian artists Agatha Gothe-Snape, Alex Martinis Roe and Hannah Raisin and collaborative works by Catherine or Kate (Catherine Sagin and Kate Woodcroft), Scott Ferguson (Erika Scott and Brooke Ferguson) and Courtney Coombs and Caitlin Franzmann. These artists engage with ideas of contemporary feminism through processes of dialogue and exchange, exploring subjectivity, humour and intimacy in performance and installation artworks. These works are generated by physical, verbal or textual dialogues between collaborators, participants or the artist and audience; and spark a conversation about contemporary feminist art practice in Australia today.

Material matters [curators]

The exhibition material matters brings together new works by Amy Commins, Jamie Behrendorff, Grace Kevill-Davies, Zoe Knight, Ruth McConchie and Courtney Pedersen – Brisbane-based artists whose experimental practices engage with materiality in specific ways. These works explore incidental viewpoints, suspended moments, constructed environments, cultural memory and repetitive processes. The artists in the exhibition investigate the temporal in terms of making and experiencing art in various modes – installation, sculpture, video, sound and works on paper. Through these material engagements, the artists question and re-imagine ways of connecting in the contemporary world, drawing together considerations of humour, history, politics, nature and everyday life. This exhibition was part of the 2014 Brisbane Experimental Art Festival, held at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts.

This is not the work

The exhibition THIS IS NOT THE WORK surveyed a selection of community-engaged artist projects from different locations around the world, and followed the pathways of women-centred social networks in order to initiate further collaboration and conversation. The projects documented in this exhibition were examples of artists working with women and community in challenging and unpredictable ways, demonstrating feminist sensibilities and a commitment to non-hierarchical and collective structures. Co-curated by the feminist art collective LEVEL, this exhibition project uses the gallery as a conceptual base-camp or frontline rather than a just site of display. The exhibition was developed and presented at The Block, Creative Industries Precinct, Queensland University of Technology in 2014. A co-authored paper about the project 'THIS IS NOT THE WORK – Feminist Collectives, Collaboration and Curating‘ was presented by members of LEVEL at the 'Feminist Curating: Contemporary Art and Feminism Symposium', Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney in October 2014.

Stone baby: An exploration of affect and trauma in visual art

Stone Baby: An Exploration of Affect and Trauma in Visual Art was held at the Block, QUT Creative Industries Precinct on August 27-28, 2014. At the conclusion of my Masters project, this exhibition was a showcase of the outcomes of my material and digital explorations in the form of installation, sculpture and film. My primary motivation can be described as a relational and ethical attempt to find a balance between the erotic and the aggressive. This is experienced in the self as feelings of attraction and repulsion in response to the new and unknown "other". Consequently creative practice is necessarily a complex affair that is experienced as a completely immersive and self-contained psychological space. It is within this space that both physical sensation and raw emotion are able to tangibly and conceptually interact with psychoanalytic theory, and concrete materials video and sound.

Quaternary [Guest Curator]

The curated exhibition, 'Quaternary' was held at the QUT Art Museum in 2015. Dr Courtney Pedersen was the guest curator. The aim of this curatorial project was to identify and analyse the work of a selection of women artists whose practices utilise the affective power of colour in compelling ways.Taking its cue from the Australian artist Thea Proctor's claim in 1938 that women artists make better colourists, the exhibition explored the enduring nature of this perception by presenting a range of contrasting approaches to colour. 'Quaternary' was the second iteration of QUT's triennial exhibition series, which explores the University's open-studio, cross-disciplinary approach to studying art. The artists include: Bianca Beetson, Chantal Fraser, Rachael Haynes, Natalya Hughes, Alice Lang, Gemma Smith, and Jemima Wyman.