GEORGIA BOE, DAVID C. COLLINS, TAYLA JAY, DANICA KNEZEVIC, BLAKE LAWRENCE, PAMELA PIROVIC, AND YIORGO YIANNOPOULOS.

’CRITICAL BODIES’
CURATED BY JULIE RRAP & CHERINE FAHD
5 JULY – 11 AUGUST, 2018

Danica Knezevic, *It’s Hard To Keep Your Head Above The Coffee Table*, endurance performance documentation, 2014, installation 2018. Photography by Document Photography.

*Critical bodies*, installation view, dimensions variable, 2018. Photography by Document Photography.

CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Critical Bodies is an exhibition co-curated by artists Julie Rrap and Cherine Fahd. It presents the practices of seven early career artists: Georgia Boe, David C. Collins, Tayla Jay, Danica Knezevic, Blake Lawrence, Pamela Pirovic, and Yiorgo Yiannopoulos. The exhibition focuses on contemporary photographic and video work along with performance and objects that place the body at the centre of investigation.

Blake Lawrence, *A Cathartic Action*, single channel video, 14:54, 2016. Photography by Document Photography.

The body has been a vehicle for experimentation into all realms of human experience, including emotion, violent action, religious expression, political engagement, gender questions, and medical intervention. Many of the artists in Critical Bodies perform the body in ways that defy inscribed norms of femininity and masculinity, they also present the public body as a site of queer practice, and a site of voyeurism and violence. Corporeal connections between bodies are also important. For many of the artists, connections between young and old, between the strong and the weak, between human and animal, are made explicit.

“Critical Bodies” binds the work of these artists together for the first time, to demonstrate how ‘the body’ continues to provide a rich source of exploration for younger generations of artists.