I'm very honoured and excited about being invited to exhibit in this show!
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Art about death typically brings to mind a certain kind of theatricality or a sombre tone, a classic still life with a skull and an extinguished candle, however the contemporary artists in this exhibition are talking about death in unexpected ways. Death has touched everyone and its effect is often life changing. It is a subject with many complexities. It is capable of stirring powerful emotions and actions, meanwhile by definition it is a simple scientific fact of life, “the cessation of all biological functions that sustain a living organism”.
This exhibition focuses on the ways in which we process and deal with death and mortality; practically, emotionally, physically and psychologically, rather than the moment or meaning of death. Death is an unromantic look at some of the many facets of death including a suicide pact in the suburbs of Perth, subverting a fear of death with faux enlightenment, talking to the dead through white noise and the vestigial in elation to the embodiment of memory, archive and grief.
Artists: Declan Apuatimi, England Banggala, Carla Cescon, Ronnie
Djanbardi, Simon Gende, Nora Holland, Richard Lewer, Thomas Munkanomi, Tony
Pilakui, Patrick Pound, Samuel ‘Marbuk’ Poantimului, Clementine Puruntatameri,
Robert Puruntatameri, Tracy Puruntatameri, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook, Helen
Shelley, Laurens Tan and myself.
Curated by Toni Bailey.
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 23 May - 5 July 2015
