Opens on Jul 6 until Jul 28, 2024
Downstairs |
Michelle Vine
If the Chair Fits / Trying Not to Yield / Carrying the Cage
.
Cellulose fibre, biopolymer, limestone, aluminium, plastic, variable dimensions. 2024
swollen limbs
unstable joints
unsteady in
facing what must be endured
still
standing
trying not to yield
I’m interested in how mass-produced, easily discarded domestic forms, such as an IKEA stool or a dining chair picked up at roadside collection, can become vehicles for the public expression of what is more often a very private experience what it is to live with chronic illness and disability. We expect bodies to look and behaviour in certain ways, akin to our assumptions of how ubiquitous manufactured furniture will function. In these works I push familiar designed objects to reflect bodies that deviate from norms and expectations of bodily function, as I hold space for the narrative and poetic possibilities of what emerges out of play. As a disabled artist, I'm experimenting with new ways of expressing my experiences of mobility loss, and the vulnerability and intimacy of my changing relationship with my own body. Central to this is both a desire, and a need, to experiment with physical media and methods of making, in ways that honour and respect my body and its capabilities and limits on any given day in the studio.
unstable joints
unsteady in
facing what must be endured
still
standing
trying not to yield
I’m interested in how mass-produced, easily discarded domestic forms, such as an IKEA stool or a dining chair picked up at roadside collection, can become vehicles for the public expression of what is more often a very private experience what it is to live with chronic illness and disability. We expect bodies to look and behaviour in certain ways, akin to our assumptions of how ubiquitous manufactured furniture will function. In these works I push familiar designed objects to reflect bodies that deviate from norms and expectations of bodily function, as I hold space for the narrative and poetic possibilities of what emerges out of play. As a disabled artist, I'm experimenting with new ways of expressing my experiences of mobility loss, and the vulnerability and intimacy of my changing relationship with my own body. Central to this is both a desire, and a need, to experiment with physical media and methods of making, in ways that honour and respect my body and its capabilities and limits on any given day in the studio.
Michelle Vine is an installation, performance, and photo media artist based in Meanjin (Brisbane). She focuses on the body and the gallery as sites for investigating sensory experience, using a phenomenological approach, informed by her lived experiences of neurodiversity, chronic illness, and queerness. In 2020 she was selected for Hatched: The National Graduate Show at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (PICA). Recent career highlights include Play Moves at the Museum of Brisbane, Curiocity for the World Science Festival Brisbane, Drawn Thread: 50 years of Australian Feminist Textiles at Artisan, and Touch and Tactility in Art at Kemper Art Museum, USA.
Artist profile
$2200/ $1900/ $3200
1. 3 chair works in series 1
2. 3 chair works in series 4
3. Carrying the cage
4. Trying not to yield 2
5. If the chair fits 1
All images by the artist.
2. 3 chair works in series 4
3. Carrying the cage
4. Trying not to yield 2
5. If the chair fits 1
All images by the artist.
