14 December 2013 – 22 February 2014
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Dunn Place, Hobart, Tasmania
Acts of exposure is a contemporary take on Romanticism and the artistic tradition of the body in space. Mark Shorter, Michael Schlitz and Leigh Hobba each use the landscape as a stage to enact performative or narrative-driven works of art. Pushing physical and psychological limits, they locate themselves – virtually or actually – within the external environment. Hence it may be no accident that Shorter, Schlitz and Hobba have each drawn from past, epic voyages – fictitious and factual – to connect with their contemporary world. They warp reality by various degrees and muddy the threshold between art and life. The fiction created by Schlitz and Hobba is partly autobiographical, while for Shorter it manifests through his alter ego Schleimgurgeln: a basic humanoid stripped of language and smeared in white paint, honey, and feathers.
Mountains and sea are central to the works in Acts of exposure. Arguably the most awe inspiring of the earth’s surfaces, they also appealed to the Romantic sensibility. The natural beauty of Tasmania has inspired many artists however it is not beauty or magnificence that informs the works in this exhibition. Instead, the artists draw from the complex tangle of personal, emotional and historical ties to the land.
Acts of exposure is a joint initiative of Contemporary Art Tasmania and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, with the support of Detached Cultural Organisation.
This article is from Island 135