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Get Rid of Yourself Now Sarah crowEST Weet-Bix Kid Matthew Bradley Experimental Art Foundation Season closed  The
recent works of Sarah crowEST and Matthew Bradley showing concurrently
at the EAF, subvert some ideas of 'normal' behaviour ('normal' of
course being a highly subjective and generalized term and by nature
something to be challenged). Expected social acts, such as applying
eye shadow or restricting our adult imagination, are scrutinised and
transform into the absurd, bizarre, oppressive and unnatural. Bradley's 'Weet-Bix Kid' perhaps attests to what occurs in growing boys who have eaten too much of this nutritious and fibrous food. An Australianism of a kind, the 'Weet-bix Kid' could be known for his (one usually thinks of a boy on a BMX) energy, youth and wholesomeness. But as shown in this exhibition, a violent imagination and rebellious challenger is also the part of the norm of youthful boys. This exhibition takes us through a myriad of dangerous backyard occupations (perhaps undertaken by the artist in his youth) of invented weapons, death-jumps and challenges to a youngster's perspective on mortality. When the same challenges are thrown into adulthood, as in this exhibition, interesting things occur.  The
climbing of an electricity tower, documented on film in May Dawn gives
a sense of danger as we climb, pole by pole, with the artist and experience
the thrill of not being caught in the early morning light. Another
piece, Empire, captures planes across an often dawn-lit Adelaide sky
and reproduces them flying upside down. Reminding one of those 'what
if' games (where lying of your back you can imagine being able to
walk on the ceiling, or even on the clouds), the planes are altered
into other-functioning machines, almost appearing like UFO's. Electricity
poles feature in every plane shot giving an industrialised feel and
distorting directions. Either cutely repulsive or repulsively cute, crowEST's creatures disarm you with their contradictory appearances. As Ken Bolton explains in his catalogue essay that accompanies this exhibition, the cute judgement doesn't always sit nicely: 'perhaps the 'cuteness' stands in for the colourful charm often attributed to other cultures: CrowEST has us attribute it and see that we have done so, caught out as patronizing, smugly dehumanizing - or able to see the reflex that way and move beyond it'. This is a truth applicable to much of crowEST's work. Immediate labels of cuteness are halted by thoughts of the artist's intent and further held back by our association of 'cute' sometimes equaling a patronizing put-down. But perhaps the idea of 'cute' alters as it transcends cultures. The connection of these works with a generalized Japanese cuteness, known as kawaii, is something to be considered. Both similarly embody 'cuteness' within creatures and characters. Examination of the Kawaii phenomenon, (of critical interest of late, particularly due to Murakami Takashi's 'Little Boy' exhibition) suggests the overly cute may be being applied as a barrier or shield to obscure deeper issues.. As animator Yasuo _tsuka has noticed, there are different kinds of cute characters, some with long and other with short limbs. In his theories he breaks them down into 'introverted' (short arms) and 'extroverted' (long arms) characters and noticed a preference for one from differing cultures. Another reading could be as 'functional cute' and 'non-functional cute'. Hello Kitty, perhaps the epitome of current 'cuteness', sits in the non-functional cute camp. Her little stump arms are too short to reach her face, should she want to feed herself, but she also lacks a mouth. Her benign and missing facial features render her mute and quite expressionless. crowEST's creatures range between the functional and the non; with many functioning for the sole purpose of amending their real selves through procedures, processes and rituals. crowEST's works in 'Get Rid of Yourself Now' are enticingly textural. The Joy of Beauty, a film of several performances interspersed into one another, star various creatural performers methodically (though rather unusually) moving through various beauty techniques. The advantage of texture expressed in film, is the added element of sound; here distorted by being both sped up and slowed down intermittently. When a soft malleable, almost dough-like goo is applied and rubbed into a head, or egg-growths sprinkling the lower legs are eliminated with a knife and hammer, sound and texture make for lovely chipping, slopping, scratching and sticky sounds. Sound is perhaps one of the strongest elements of this show as it not only affects the film, but also permeates work outside of the darkened room. Rather eerily, the speeding and slowing of the film captures the voice of crowEST speaking throughout her performing (and also that of the cameraperson) and alters it from a haunting growl (the stuff nightmares are made of) to a humorous speedy chipmunk voice, then back again. If the creatures weren't absurd or otherworldly enough already, these distorted voices throw them in a spin between amusing and horrific, informing the work with another layer. The creatures hung on the gallery wall gather mainly in mobs. While they have their paint and their best sequins and beads on, snippets of untamed beauty poke through. The existence of these beings is entwined within the pressures of keeping up appearances. Obviously they have spent a lot of their time preening but alas, the real self always peeks through. This exhibition is a wholly effective approach to what can be an overdone subject.  |
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