Repugnant Charm: February 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dead Hare Melbourne Art Review

REVIEW: N-N-NERVOUS  

Anthropomorphisation.  Its what happens when you're stuck on a desert island in the middle of  the ocean with only a volley ball smeared in your own blood(1) or a  coconut headed pop-star for a friend(2). Its born out desperation,  loneliness, and n-n-nervousness. As human beings, we need companionship,  even if it is imaginary. No man is an island(3)... especially if  they're on one.

Tom Hanks and Wilson (above),
Milky Joe (below).

Solo  shows can be isolating, soul bearing, no one else's work or ideas to  hide behind. Kirsten Perry disperses the anxiety in a number of ways for  her own solo exhibition N-N-NERVOUS at No No Gallery (or, as I had  begun referring to it: N-N-NERVOUS at N-N-No No Gallery). 

One  way to side step around anxiety is to disperse the burden to others,  preferably fictional anthropomorphised sea gulls (below)  who, as the  spirit animals of Australian suburbia, are only too happy to absorb any  excess negative energy as they mill around smoking. Despite adhering to  the cut aesthetics of an Aardman  clay stop-motion film, which makes  them look like they've flown from the set of the latest Wallace and  Gromit(4) movie, there's some dark undertones, namely the cancer causing  cigarettes in their beaks and x's for eyes, which in the world of  comical cartoons means that a character has died.

Perry  infuses the cuteness that's almost always inherent in the act of  anthropomophising with bleak humorous satire into almost all the works.  She humanises hands (below) fixed in the 'okay' gesture with faces on  both sides, making them literally two-faced: one side fixed in cartoon  mortis (x'd out eyes, and straight, unmoving lines for mouths), the  other side making do with a mouth that's either manically grinning or in  wiggle of worry.

Not  all the works are operating on such a delicate line opposites. Some  cleverly take up residence in being stratified puns. Like the pot plant  work title titled 'track suit plant' (below) which has only one letter  of difference between the object its been made to resemble: track suit  pants. The plant in in the pants is of course a small 'bush'. Perry  makes pubic humor public. 

The  'Track Suit Plant' also made me think of Wallace and Gromit again,  specifically their film 'The Wrong Trousers' in which the plot revolves  around the use (and misuse) of a robotic pair or trousers that can be  controlled via remote. Perry also pays homage to the Japanese who are  gods of anthropomorphising and making ordinary objects super kawaii, by  crafting small faces (below) on a tree stump that're reminiscent of the  'tree spirits' from Hayao Miyazaki's 'Princess Mononoke' (5), and like  Perrys work in the exhibition, Miyazaki's films often revolve around  humanity's relationship to nature, or perhaps I'm reading too much into  the coincidences that can arise from the the simplicity and minimalism  Perry utilises when creating faces from a mere two circles and a line.

Perry  has a wealth of technical and practical skills up her sleeves to manage  a range of mediums in order to produce the eclectic collection of work  in N-N-NERVOUS: jewelery making, paper mache, clay, drawing, painting,  glazing. All these techniques have aided in the creation of Perry's   diverse cast of characters.

If you're n-n-nervous, its best to face it (cringe-worthy puns ahoy!).

(1) Robert Zemeckis (Director), 'Castaway' (film), 2000 
(2) The Mighty Boosh, 'The Nightmare of Milky Joe' (season 2, episode 6), 2005 
(3) John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (Meditation XVII), 1624
(4) Nick Park (creator), Wallace and Gromit
(5) Hayao Miyazaki, 'Princess Mononoke', 1997

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Sunday, February 13, 2011

All over red rover.

Thanks to all those lovely people who came to have a look and even buy something. I ended up keeping the logs and am thinking I might invest in a mini chainsaw.....Totems maybe.