The Lost Ones Gallery in Camp Street is beginning its 2018 series of exhibitions with a show that will encourage debate and discussion about the nature of sexuality, says director Tara Poole.
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Art+Body Politic is a group show featuring four artists who are exploring the junction of where the personal and the political discourse meet.
Tara Poole says in the current political climate where the government has taken very personal issues about love and marriage and turned them into political matters means that the exhibition has a very potent and topical message.
“Things that have usually been the preserve of conversation between loved ones is now out in the public for discussion and analysis and dissection,” says Poole.
“We thought it would be a good opportunity to look at artists who have been talking about these issues for quite some time and give them a voice.”
The four artists – Liam Benson, Kirsten Fredericks, Lucas Grogan and Paul Yore – are drawn from across Australia and their works are also diverse in approach, yet Poole says there is also a literal thread that joins their art.
“They are all working with textiles, which is interesting,” says Poole.
“They work with material and cloth; they’re embroidering and stitching… people may say it’s a traditional feminine art form, but here it’s the boys who are doing all that work.”
The art in this show crosses both real and imagined boundaries, Poole says.
The work can be funny and gentle and tender, she says, but it is also designed to stop the viewer and make them think and perhaps discuss what is happening with other people in the room.
“They are using their bodies, but also using media that you may not traditionally associate with the messages they are sending. For example, there is a use of quilting in this show, which is an art form that usually claimed by certain groups, but here it is transformed and reclaimed by two of the artists, Paul Yore and Lucas Grogan.”
To that end, there will also be a podcast recorded at the gallery on February 10 at 2pm, where artist Kirsten Fredericks will discuss her crocheted and knitted artworks that celebrate and investigate the human body in all its forms. Fredericks will be in discussion with Debra Lord, aka Lance Deboyle, about the myriad nature of sexuality.
Art+Body Politic runs until February 18 at the Lost Ones Gallery, 14 Camp Street, Ballarat. Entry is free, Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 4pm.
People may say it’s a traditional feminine art form, but here it’s the boys who are doing all that work.
- Tara Poole, director at Lost Ones
