work / THE BATHROOM - SPRING1883 2018
The Bathroom
Suite 124 - Spring1883
GAGPROJECTS, Adelaide and Berlin
Presented by GAGPROJECTS as part of Spring1883 is an installation of three projects titled 'The Bathroom'. The installation includes 'Medicine' 2012-2016, 'Skin Care' 2017-18 and a new project created especially for Spring1883 titled 'Sanitized for your Protection' 2018. 'The Bathroom' follows on from my installation with Tolarno Galleries at Spring1883 in 2016 titled 'Love Letters' where the use of the existing space and furniture were critical to the contextualisation of the project. The works were placed on and in the two antique writing desks in the Prince Alfred Suite.
This year my focus is directed towards the bathroom of suite 124. Traditionally, the bathrooms at Spring1883 have proven to be the most difficult spaces to exhibit in. They are small, highly reflective, brightly lit with cold, hard surfaces; granite, steel, tiles, glass and porcelain. The small spaces are made more difficult with the addition of cabinets, a toilet, shower and bath. Rather than work against the inherent difficulties of the bathroom, these projects work with the existing conditions, entering into the narrative and communal experience of the space by adding a series of objects that relate to what is commonly found and experienced within most bathrooms.
The three projects include:
Medicine - meticulously references various pharmaceutical boxes collected over the past few years. Some found on the street or discarded at the back of my local Chemist Warehouse, while others were purchased or prescribed to my family. Stripped of all text and incidental imagery the work focuses instead on the abstract, geometric patterns that underpin the unique visual language associated with pharmaceutical packaging. These sculptures are made to the exact measurements of the original tiny medicine boxes.
Skin Care was made after taking a short cut through the Myer ground floor cosmetics department in Bourke St in 2017. I was completely mesmerised by the endless display counters and beautiful packaging, promoting various products with often dubious claims. The titles and descriptions of the face creams in particular were extraordinary. The promises of instant face/neck/eye lifts and instant skin rejuvenation were nothing short of outlandish. I’ve tried to capture this nonsense in the titles of the works where I have cobbled together a series of real life claims from various cosmetic companies. The five works in this project are displayed in an acrylic case atop a white plinth, further enhancing the effect often seen on the Myers and David Jones cosmetics counters. The boxes/works are out of reach, untouchable, suggesting an exclusive, expensive and perhaps unattainable desire for that youthful glow.
Sanitized for your Protection, is a new series of long thin works on paper 4cm x 76cm each, that relate specifically to the hotel bathroom. In particular, those ludicrous thin strips of paper stretched across the toilet seat when you first enter the bathroom of many hotel rooms…a suggestion hyper-cleanliness and 5-star luxury. Each day throughout the Art Fair a new work will be placed over the toilet seat, keeping to the rhythm of the cleaning schedule.
Medicine
Control Pain-Live Life
Non-Drowsy
Viagra
No Doz
Sun Cream
Two Tablets Daily
Nasal Spray
Heartburn
Wart-Off
24hr Relief
If Pain Persists
Voltaren Rapid
Auto Acrylic on wood (12 parts)
200cm x 26cm x 30cm
(Plinth 2200 x 40cm)
2012-2016
Skin Care
Hyper sensitive, high potency, pro-collagen de-puffing eye cream (grey)
Multi protection, anti-oxidant age defying booster serum for advanced cell repair (orange)
Intensive, nourishing facial mask with nanotechnology and active delivery system to hydrate, tighten and brighten all skin types (green)
Ultimate regeneration, oxygenating night cream formulated with superfood cocktails for extra dry, flaky, easily irritable, sensitive skin (pink)
Hydra-concentrated, skin fortifying, vitamin replenishing revitalising day cream with unique collagen synthesis and super 6 complex formula for total UV protection (blue)
Auto acrylic on wood
30cm x 30cm x 30cm
2017 - 2018
Sanitized for your Protection
Acrylic on paper
4cm x 76cm
2018
(each day a new work will be installed – green, pink, orange, purple and blue)
