Holly Block’s ‘It’s Love’ (2021) pulls at perception. Its surreal composition with little aesthetic refinement carries charm and unease. The dolls never satisfy in their form, nor does the barred-back, worn setting echo the multiverse to which they belong than beckon the unrecognisable. Behind the dolls, a mirror with a vintage frame smeared with Vaseline obscures reflection. On inspection, the words ‘You are beautiful’ become apparent.
Groundwork exists with both humble and dynamic energy, a duality owing to Mark Galea’s spatial and colour awareness transfixing his work with a presence open to the viewer’s approach.
No Ball Games Allowed scratches at the insides of our bodies, irresistibly, but without reaching the spot of sensitivity, as it leans away from us and, instead, fully into itself.
Rebecca Belmore’s corpulent force carries Turbulent Water, Australia’s first solo of the celebrated Lac Seul First Nation (Anishinaabe) artist. Showing at Buxton Contemporary until May, the exhibition broadly positions Belmore’s works: video projections with performance and sculptural elements which nurture Indigenous peoples’ cultural bonds and abrasions.
For Rirkrit Tiravanija, meals are a default to prompt strangers to feel a familiarity with each other- the resulting relationship between public engagement and food his popularised oeuvre. As his meals grant visitors to reach the work’s conclusion, however, the artist merely instigates his idea before ceasing control and leaving outcomes open. After he creates a platform – like a meal within a gallery in Untitled (lunch box) – he leaves it be within its context, entrusting participants to condition the work’s conclusion. This assumes the gallery is passive – but the NGV is not a dead space waiting to be activated.
For Cambodian-American artist Anida Yoeu Ali, the loss of her artwork The Red Chador was profoundly traumatic. In this conversation, Ali reflects on her…