Exhibits,
Josephine Mead The Conversation.
Opening: Wednesday 1 August, 6 - 8pm Dates: 1 August - 25 August 2018
‘She writes well but she has no conversation.’1
The word conversation connotes talking. Which two halves of myself are in discussion? What is it that I am trying to reconcile, work through and work around? A potential outtake. Their bodies are close, but their feet are drawn apart. They are moored to one another, by the cloth and by their footing. The curve of the two sculptures will be echoed by the seat. ‘One always locates one’s own image in an image of the other and, one always locates the other in one’s own image.’2 A place of theatricality. The performativity of self-realization. The sculptures function as stand-ins; as props. There is a roundness here. Are you breathing with me? Are you breathing too?
‘Doctors have a vast platform to investigate, tabulate, and disseminate just how miserable they are.’3 Is the conversation or the talking taking place now? What is the difference? We are drawn to things that both reflect and repel us. Think about the image’s predecessor. To become marked by language. A tired ship with deflated sails.
I am rehearsing for roles I am yet to understand.
Josephine Mead is a Melbourne-based visual artist who has completed a Degree in Fine Art (2014) at RMIT and an Honours Degree in Fine Art (2017) at Monash University, for which she was awarded First Class Honours. Josephine has shown work in over 30 exhibitions at a range of venues, including Blindside, Kings Artist-Run, Seventh, Craft Victoria, Blue Oyster Space, Testing Grounds and the Monash and RMIT faculty galleries and was shortlisted for the John Fries Award in 2018. Working through photography, sculpture, installation, writing and video, Josephine is interested in assessing the ways in which she is capable of giving and receiving support. In 2018 Josephine will participate in the Kings Artist-Run Emerging Writers Program; undertake a cultural research residency in Puebla, Mexico, through the Arquetopia Foundation; and undertake a 3-month studio residency in Kyneton through the Macfarlane Fund.
1 http://www.dictionary.com/browse/disseminate?s=t. Accessed April 14, 2018.
2 Peggy Phelan, Unmarked: The Politics of Performance. (New York: Routledge, 1993.) 18.
3 http://www.dictionary.com/browse/conversation?s=t. Accessed April 4, 2018.
