Image: Mythopoetic: Women artists from Australia and India (installation) 2013. Griffith University Art Museum, Brisbane. Photo: Carl Warner
10 April – 18 May 2013
Presented by GUAG and QCA Galleries as part of Encounters: India Festival, the exhibition Mythopoetic: women artists from Australia and India took place across three galleries located at Griffith University's Queensland College of Art. The work of 15 artists surveyed the way in which women are re-picturing, re-contextualising and re-imaging the feminine.
Exhibiting artists included: Dhruvi Acharya (India), Kate Beynon ( AUS ), Di Ball ( AUS ), Laini Burton ( AUS ), Marnie Dean ( AUS ), Simone Eisler ( AUS ), Fiona Hall ( AUS ), Pat Hoffie (Scotland/ AUS ), Sonia Khurana (India), Pushpamala N. (India), Anne-Maree Reaney and Jill Kinnear ( AUS ), Mandy Ridley ( AUS ), Sangeeta Sandrasegar ( AUS ) and Shambhavi Singh (India).
Curator: Marnie Dean.
Public Programs
11 May 2013
The 'Mythopoetic' exhibition and the opening of Encounters: India Festival, included guest speakers and a live performance by renowned Indian musician Rajesh Mhta on 'Hybrid Trumpet' in the Queensland College of Art and Design Project Gallery.
16 May 2013
Griffith University Art Gallery hosted a tour of all three exhibition venues with exhibiting artists Marnie Dean, Pat Hoffie, Laini Burton, Di Ball, Simone Eisler, Jill Kinnear and Ann-Marie Reaney.
18 March 2013
Marnie Dean, artist/curator gave an in-depth talk on curating 'Mythopoetic' and the artworks on loan from Australian and Indian artists.
Pixy Liao
Born 1979 Shanghai, China; lives New York, United States of America
Pixy Liao uses photography, video, and installation to question stereotypical representations of couples, artists, and the female experience. Some of these intimate, humorous photographs are from Liao’s Experimental Relationship project, 2007 – ongoing. For Liao:
As a woman brought up in China, I used to think I could only love someone who is older and more mature than me, who can be my protector and mentor. Then I met my current boyfriend, Moro. Since he is 5 years younger than me, I felt that whole concept of relationships changed, all the way around. I became the person who has more authority & power. One of my male friends even questioned how I could choose a boyfriend the way a man would choose a girlfriend. And I thought, ‘Damn right! That’s exactly what I’m doing, & why not?!
In her photographs, Liao often portrays herself in a dominant role while her boyfriend assumes a more submissive position in order to break the predominant relationship model and experiment with new modes of being together.
Lin Zhipeng (aka No. 223)
Born 1979 Guangdong, China; lives Beijing, China
Lin Zhipeng (aka No.223) is a leading figure in contemporary Chinese photography. Selfnamed after the lovelorn Hong Kong police officer in Wong Kar-wai’s 1994 film Chungking Express, 223’s photographs capture the need to love in an otherwise indifferent society. Documenting the ecstasy, eroticism and esotericism of life amidst an often-closed traditional culture, his photographs act as a collective not-so-private diary of a generation pushing against the limits of the rigid social rules of conservative Chinese society. This presentation is comprised of photographs, dating from 2007 which demonstrate the arcs and parameters of his practice. Confidently flash-lit and playfully posed 223’s photographs show you that relationships will continue even as they change. Your friends will grow old, their homes might shift from Beijing to Paris, and some lovers may depart while others choose to stay. In 223’s photographs we see bodies immersed in milky waters or decisively slumped against the wall. These are bodies that are not explicitly working but neither are they at rest. Embodying the messiness of human relationships, his work is equal parts surprising and sanguine, mundane and melancholic, yet always beautiful.
Installation Images
