The Art Gallery of NSW is launching a new exhibition in which 11 artists explore the emotions of love.
‘We used to talk about love’ features major and often confronting work by 11 contemporary Australian artists from around the world who explore the emotions of love. Curator Natasha Bullock says, “All the pictures and moving images are marked by an overwhelming sense of intimacy, yet despite the title, there isn’t a single love heart in this exhibition.”
Across an array of media including photography, photo media, collage, sculpture and multi-media installation the exhibition covers varied subjects, from dressed-up bodies to a real-time disintegrating sculpture of a stargazing young man and collages evoking the memories and innocence of childhood. ‘We used to talk about love’ considers the emotions of joy, elation, longing, loss, melancholia and memory.
The galleries have been set up with walls built to promote a more intimate viewing experience with a passageway through the exhibition. The aim is to take the viewer on an emotional journey by clustering works around four broad ideas that are also spatially articulated: Artists on show include Polly Borland’s (USA/Aus) prints of dressed-up bodies exploring intimacy, Paul Knight’s (UK/Aus) folded photographs of couples and Angelica Mesiti’s (France/Aus) sensual video revealing young people in threshold states of rapture and joy. Expressive abstractions include artwork based on social relationships including Darren Sylvester’s (Vic) digital prints which show the essence of a moment. Sylvester’s crisp style references genres typically associated with advertising and high-gloss magazines. David Rosetzky’s (Vic) feature-length video produced with actors, a dancer and a scriptwriter, highlights the complex nature of contemporary communication and how we connect to each other. David Noonan’s (UK/Vic) collages of children and people evoke the nature of memory, Eliza Hutchison’s (Vic) more than 40 prints sourced from private moments and public events examines the permutations of memory, and Justene Williams’ (NSW) seven-channel video installation with pillows, bread, stairs and shelves is said to be a celebration of life.
The final room ‘Filthy’, examines artworks that evoke a sense of loss, absence and disintegration. It runs the gamut from Glenn Sloggett’s (Vic) photos of decaying roses, street signs and abandoned dogs which find beauty in the ordinary to Grant Steven’s (Qld) video of floating words and melancholy music that riff off popular culture, through to Tim Silvers’ (NSW) commission of a life-size body cast made of watercolour pigment and photographs which show the sculpture’s slow decay, in situ, for the duration of the exhibition. ‘We used to talk about love’ is the seventh in a series of contemporary exhibitions supported by the Balnaves Foundation. The exhibition is on from Jan 31 to April 21 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery Rd, The Domain, Sydney. See www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au
