SCORE FOR A SCENE
Curated by Laura Brown
15 Apr 2015—02 May 2015
Eugene Carchesio (AU), Vishal Jugdeo (USA), Mike Richards (USA) & Tyza Stewart (AU)
A ballet shoe stands en pointe. In 19 seconds its ribbon is pulled loose and slowly the foot slumps downward. This exhibition tips off from that point. Previously, a show with three artist-duos happens in a small gallery in Los Angeles. Finding flows of intimacy and distance in these personal and working relationships, that exhibition is a precursor to this one. Here, solo artists present works that turn to modes of doubling and reflection in their questioning of selfhood.
Sensitive to the politics of contemporary image circulation Tyza Stewart creates self-portraits using processes of visual editing. Including in this exhibition is a new lithograph composed from two images: a photograph of the artist’s body re-drawn with a body found in an online search. This process acts as an area to imagine and project a physical identity, wherein self-image develops through image-making. Erasing the original photographs and without colour, here Stewart creates a singular image developed as another step within this long-running process of shifting self-portraiture.
Eugene Carchesio’s delicate, frozen line-drawings of boxers are part of a larger series that he repeatedly revisits in his practice. While oftentimes cast as singular figures, these boxers also double against themselves like glitches. In these works Carchesio traces out beings that might read as ciphers for the heroic romance of the artist; a Hercules, fighting until the very end. While casting this idea of artist-hood into such grand drama, these drawings are marked by Carchesio’s signature quietness and visual lightness.
Elsewhere in the space, Mike Richards mutely films a scene of defeat. An actor lays knocked out while the camera pans the glistening textures of fake blood delicately applied to torso and face. Although seemingly a moment between scenes, a clapperboard announces the beginning of the take. Starting from behind the camera, the scene ends in a close-up of the bloody texture, right in plain view of the lens. Filming within a film, this drama stretches out in the quiet of the night.
Vishal Jugdeo’s Stage Design for Disassociation unfolds a different kind of melodrama. Two subjects enact a heightened script within a script; seemingly a therapy session as scripted voiceover. The pair begin to fold into each other, becoming hyper-imagined and over-dramatic until more seemingly real than real. Fluctuating like the waves of a CGI ocean, this filmed scene proliferates beyond the image when voices persist as the screen blacks out.
Laura Brown is a curator and writer living in Los Angeles.
This exhibition has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.