Following on from Beyonce Is A Feminist in 2013, Love & Feminism investigates a range of responses to the relationship between feminism and love.
The invited artists of the exhibition – which is curated by Brigid Noone – open a dialogue about the complex nature of love and how it relates to feminism. Here are five statements from the exhibition.
One
Curator Brigid Noone. Following on from the exhibition Beyoncé is a Feminist held at Fontanelle gallery in 2013, Love & Feminism investigates a range of responses to the relationship between Feminism and love. Connecting with an intersectional approach, the invited artists, Jodie Whalen, Amy Milhinch, Mary-Jean Richardson, Alex Cuffe, Lynn Lobo, Madison Bycroft, and Grace Marlow, open up a dialogue about the complex nature of love and how it relates to a contemporary conversation around feminism.Two.
Grace Marlow, let me carry that for you. let me carry that for you is an exercise in coming to know something intimately. The object will be reoriented over the duration of the exhibition. Written actions and instructions will accumulate daily, describing a relationship between myself and the object within the bordered space.
Declaration of Love Christmas day
Three.
Jodie Whalen, Declaration of Love Christmas day. Fitting within my performance practice Between Husband and Wife existed for the live audience only. Any documentation was created to go into my own archive, a common outcome of documentation in my performance work history. This Love Is Huge saw a turning point in this approach. This work was a one-time only performance, a declaration of love to my husband that celebrates our romantic history of longing, lust, hate, sadness, frustration and togetherness. It is a collective of emotions shared through a series of cover songs. Each song reveals a significant occasion in my life with my husband, marking the turn of a chapter. Unlike most of my previous performance works, documentation was recorded of this performance in a private viewing, so it could live on, as its own body of new video work titled Declaration Of Love. This new solo exhibition will present five videos for five songs, exhibited as a loop of love song declarations, continuing and finalizing the language and reference points in mass popular Western culture that the original performance took inspiration from.Four.
Lynn Lobo, Shrine 1. Still Evening, Shrine 2. Prickly Ancestor. A shrine is 'a niche or enclosure containing a religious statue or other object' (Oxford English Dictionary). To arrive at my shrines, I notice objects that catch my attention. I put the object in a semi-enclosed box and wonder what else it needs? I find other objects that may want to be placed with it. I look... For hours... Perhaps days and wonder, 'what is trying to emerge here? What is this about? What else is needed for this shrine to be complete?’. I'm very careful not to be in a hurry and rush to know something. It's like relishing a good mystery and trusting it will reveal itself in time.Once a shrine is arranged, I can begin to sense what it is about. These paintings are not about the objects present. Rather, they are a meditation through my senses of qualities within me. Sometimes what they reflect is difficult, sometimes unclaimed within myself. My shrine meditations are a path of self-healing and love.
Shrine 1. Still Evening, Shrine 2. Prickly Ancestor
