THE TATTOOED LAND, DRAWN THREAD: FIFTY YEARS OF FEMINISM, ARITSAN, BRISBANE, QLD, 2020

Materials: velvet Curtains with embroidered text, mussel shell finals,  painted hide, industrial hose, faux fur,fruit made with painted canvas, modelling clay, electrial cord with label with machine embroided text, steel and garden implement

Photo credit: Mark Sherwood

THE TATTOED LAND

The Tattooed Man was shown in 1990 at the Gold Coast City Art Gallery (now HOTA) when I was living on the Coast.  The installation used two hides painted as if they were tattooed male and female skins.  They were shown with other sculptural pieces, including a wooden stand and platter of fruit (some fruit was from a 1980’s painting). The female skin had images of the natural landscape and a brain whereas the male skin’s images were foreboding. The arms were covered in bombs, the chest covered in volcanos, snakes and oversized insects crawling up the body.

This work was exhibited the same year as I travelled to America visiting, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Flying from city to city I was shocked by the landscape below of red and bright green polluted lakes. For me, these were real warning signs but we assumed we were immune, we could not have envisaged the climate changes that are now self-evident.  

Throughout my career, I have sporadically reworked individual pieces from previous installations and used them like props, adding to them to create new works. This process gives more clarity/insights or new meanings.

Text has always played its part in my work – either in the work or in the naming of installations, exhibitions and sometimes particular pieces.   Embroidered text has been used on the folds of the velvet curtains in this installation.

The Tattooed Land has been reconfigured from the 1990 installation using part of the title, pieces from 1980 and 1990 and now 2020. The installation is even more seductive using velvet curtains and fur.

The Tattooed Man (1990) and The Tattooed Land (2020) reference the beauty and the fragility of our relationships with each other and our environment and the tenuous nature of both.