Exhibits,
Deb Mansfield and Kylie Banyard Something immeasurably better
Opening: 27th April Dates: 27th April – 14th May
‘Something immeasurably better’ brings the work of Deb Mansfield and Kylie Banyard together for the first time. Their approach to making work each starts with nostalgically based interest in photographic imagery of faraway places – sometimes found and at other times self-documented. Working with images of this type acts as a catalyst in the construction of vivid spaces of imagination (for Mansfield it’s often images of islands, for Banyard the interior space of handmade houses). This reflective romantic tendency stems from a deeper longing for something else – a searching for an uncertain allusive space that is neither here nor there, but always immeasurably better than the harsh realities and clutter of the everyday real world. This sense of utopian yearning is a romantic turn that has a long art historical lineage, however, it also plays-out in the escapist everyday desires of the armchair traveller. The armchair traveller is a cognitive tourist, someone who explores the world from the comforts of home; be it through print or online, they seek some form of filtered and mediated experience to feed their imaginings. It is a visual idiom that has both positive and negative associations (i.e.: an inquisitive day-dreamer or a lazy person opting out of the real thing). Today’s armchair traveller might find themselves on Tumblr or Instagram and Pinterest, these forms of social media offer users the opportunity to construct mediated spaces and filtered feeds as a way of offering a momentary distraction from the here and an ideal and manufactured impression of there.
Deb Mansfield is an Australian artist, based in Sydney, represented by Galerie Pompom. She is also Co-director of TOP FLOOR at Wellington with fellow artist and friend, Emily Parsons-Lord. Mansfield’s area of research looks at liminal geographies and spaces of in-between. Since 2000, she has participated in over thirty-five group exhibitions and had nineteen solo exhibitions.
Kylie Banyard is an Australian artist, based in Sydney. Recent projects include: solo exhibitions at Broken Hill Regional Gallery (Imagining Alternatives, 2014) and Galerie pompom Sydney (Mono Nuovo, 2014). In 2015 she exhibited at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair with Galerie pompom, Sydney In addition, she is currently working on collaborative co-curatorial project titled The Mnemonic Mirror with fellow artist Gary Carsley; this project will be staged across a range of National University Art Galleries in 2016 – 2017.
Image: Are you sure you can’t hear that? (2015) Hand-woven photo tapestry, resin frame & cleat, lighting, electrical cord.
