MEANWHILE
Wellington, New Zealand
6 – 22 July 2017
Laurel L Barr, Vee Collerton-Mckay, Morgan Hogg, Margot Mills, Justine Walker and Ary Jansen online
Curated by Jordana Bragg
What motivates us is the fight between being satisfied and frustrated. This might explain why we get out of bed or why we stay there for days on end.
Now more than ever motivations are considered sinister, and action without motivation, unviable. Satisfaction Frustration reasons with how we behave in the crossfire between too much and not enough.
List of works
Text provided for the exhibition handout by the artists.
Laurel L. Barr
Dolphins (1), bound medication pamphlets (30cm x 6cm x 9cm), 2017
Provided by pharmaceutical companies featuring pictures of happy dolphins and people laughing, are the pamphlets which accompany the artists mental health medication. The second iteration of this Dolphins (2) was sent directly to the pharmaceutical company, alongside a letter addressing the medications serious side effects, addictive potency, and withdrawal symptoms, which were not reported by the company for several years.
Second Hand Numbness, collected used soaps, plastic (each 7cm x 5cm)
Soaps used on the bodies of friends, colleagues and strangers were requested and collected. in reference to the artist experiencing obsessive compulsive disorder.
Morgan Hogg
until there’s nothing left i (acrylic on cotton)
until there nothing left ii (acrylic on silk)
dis appearance (acrylic on cotton)
untitled (acrylic on silk) 2017
Exploring occupation of the body, Hogg investigates perceptions of the feminine ‘marked’ body. The works consider the space which a feminine body is (or is not) permitted to occupy. The artists experience or these conditions, taking shape in the form of paintings,
Vee Collerton-McKay
Reify (i), Digital Photography, textile / Reify (ii) Live performance 5/07/2017
”All bodies are good bodes” – some idiot on the internet
What makes a “good” body? How is my body different from yours? How do you see me? Why does my body make you uncomfortable?
Margot Mills
THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ME IN THIS BODY, (video), 2017
A video work that explores the ways in which women’s* relationships with their corporeal experience is consistently mediated and disrupted by patriarchal structures. The video shows a pair of hands, endlessly striking the concrete floor onto which it is exhibited, with text appearing in time with each moment of impact. The text discusses how women’s* bodies are historically constructed as absences and empty spaces, as vessels that need to be fit and filled for another’s purpose, a purpose which inevitably override her own autonomy and being.
The woman who inflicts pain upon herself signifies the reclamation of a body which has endured centuries of pain from others. The action undertaken in THERE IS NO ROOM FOR ME IN THIS BODY is performative as it is painful, but it is pointless and ongoing, unsynchronized and frustrating, never nearing satisfaction nor completion.
*women referring to aft those who identify as such.
Justine Walker
Frustrated performance/ Frustrated Body (video x 2)
Countdown, 1 min 41 sec (2008)
Countdown 28, 29 sec (20’7)
Frustrated Performance/ Frustrated Body is made up of Countdown (2008) and Countdown 28 (2017). An attempt to conform to a standard and found lacking. A performance evolved to control a body which only undermines the regulation. Layering the frustration, the performance never ends, the body fails to deliver and they never meet in the middle.
Ary Jansen
Sonja & Corpsie, 1 min 56sec video. (2016)
Exhibited online
Meet Sonja – a transgender woman in second life and Corpsie – a transgender boy working on making a rabbit Suit for his pursona.