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Public Relations Beverley Southcott: "The Palm of Your Hand" Rachel McElwee: "Money Honey" Downtown Art Space Waymouth Street, Adelaide. Season closed  The
works from Bev Southcott and Rachel McElwee, finishing their time
at Downtown, examine two very different kinds of public spaces and
the consuming performances that take place within them. Southcott
examines the mall and the act of shopping while McElwee looks at strip
club culture with its reciprocating act between the stripper and the
viewer. Southcott and McElwee, both finishing masters' students, present
their works after in-depth studies into their subjects. Southcott's series of photographs turn shopping into the sublime. A panoramic scene of a shopping mall, busy with people, signage and imagined noise, lines the bottom third of the photographs. The shopping scene we see is taken in Australian's consumerist heart, Sydney. The top section of the photograph opens up into a hazy warm orange space, you would probably imagine was some kind of Turner-esque atmospheric weather condition, should you not know it is a blurred close-up of the palm of a hand. While this series, Mall and Palm 5, raises issues about the invasive methods of surveillance it also starts to negate it with the use of the palm blocking the probably unwanted gaze. Poetically, while the hand restricts the view of this shopping frenzy, its translucent warmth simultaneously gives the impression of freedom and space. This contrasting sense of restricted freedom mirrors Southcott's rather surprising relationship with this Sydney shopping mall. Rather than feel this place as a busy, slick and unhospitable space, Southcott, having lived and worked near this mall, relates to it as her home away from home. The mall in these photos is her comfort place and her escape and the use of her (and her family member's) palm goes some way to guarding these niceties. Through these photographs and the closeness of the human touch up against the camera lens, such a public space can be perceived with some intimacy. McElwee's 'Money Honey' is an installation of objects and images around the performance of stripping and the act of watching. Items such as a mock heart stage made of beer cans and glitter, shabby chandeliers, decorative mirror squares and revealing peephole shaped images, speak of the facade presented by the strip club. Unlike Southcott's shopping malls, the strip club uses symbolic objects, (as McElwee has shown, usually consisting of tacky decor and over-the-top colours) to put forth the impression of an intimate and homely, yet slightly ritzy, space. The gaze, rather than restricted here is invited, or unveiled slowly and used to tease. McElwee's objects and images, while using the language of the strip club facade, twist meanings so that the act of stripping can be seen from perspectives not often considered. For example, among demonstrative images showing the typical and effective poses, are men, naked and performing. These shots speak of the manipulation of the performer over the watcher. Also, while femininity may have been the presumed impetus behind the performance styles of women, McElwee shows a phallic preoccupation applied to the female body. McElwee's research into the changing nature of the stripping industry, such as the costume, the length and style of performances and perhaps the clientele, reflect upon a culture that is fast-paced and 'instant' - this, as this exhibition attests to, has transferred itself into every aspect of our culture.  |
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