Perth Voice Interactive

A CONSTRUCTION site is the perfect metaphor for our body always being a work-in-progress as we try in vain to become the human version of the Taj Mahal.

Cosmetic surgery, big bums, fitness fanatics, body shamers, skinny models, manscaping, buff sportspeople, anal bleaching  – the list goes on and on – and in one way or another they consciously or subconsciously shape how we view the human form.

Emerging Perth artist Emily Palmer literally deconstructs identity and body culture in Please Excuse Our Appearance, a series of sculptures made from construction signs and equipment.

“I’m very interested in cultures surrounding body modification whether that be through elite athletics, surgery, hormones, tattoos, piercing there’s always an element of fantasy, obsession and ritual that go into the aesthetics of the body,” they said.

“Every culture and subculture has its own idea of the perfect body which everyone will always strive for and fall short of.”

In the sculpture Post Chain, a photo collage of a chest is suspended between two orange hazard posts, reducing the human anatomy to a warning sign.

“I personally grew up in the era of anorexic chic models and calling men who bathed metrosexual, as I aged I realised this was stupid but I’m still drawn in by the glamour surrounding the idea of ‘perfection’,” says Palmer, who is originally from Kalgoorlie and moved to Perth in 2014.

“I’ve almost come to think of the figures I patchwork together as angels or aliens, sci-fi fantasies made of cultural detritus and plonked into my boring life.

“I can’t change where they came from but I can try to make something out of it that reflects the messiness of the visual culture of the body.”

Please Excuse Our Appearance is just one of the great artworks in PICA’s annual exhibition Hatched, which features a wide selection of graduate artists from across Australia.

There’s a healthy contingent of talent from WA including Esther Forest, whose beautifully crafted dioramas and stop-motion films have a sinister edge.

She takes an art form normally associated with childhood and adds a big dollop of horror, sci-fi and black humour, creating something incongruous and slightly unsettling. 

One of her dioramas features a strange character on a phone in a dim, weird-looking pet shop.

“The character ‘Louise’ is a shop assistant who’s on the schizophrenia spectrum, inspired by my own experiences and imagination,” Forest says.

“Louise was made through trial and error as I needed a puppet that stood out against the colourful collaged backgrounds in my film.

“I kept her colour scheme minimal, using pink, black and grey. This model is made from wood, clay, a big screw and wire.”

Forest says she is passionate by animal rights: “There’s a certain horror to a pet shop, a store that sells cages, choke chains and leashes. My film and accompanying diorama portrays a customer getting caught in a cage and being sold in the pet shop.

“I like to think about the idea of humans becoming pets and invite viewers to reflect on such questions also. It can get confronting, but also weird which is fun.”

Now in its 33rd year, Hatched provides a platform for graduate artists (some have never exhibited at a major gallery before).

This year’s exhibition features more than 20 artists and there’s $50,000 in prize money up for grabs. Since 1992, Hatched has featured more than 1400 art school graduates with notable alumni including Archie Moore, Julie Gough, Shaun Gladwell and Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran.

“Hatched is that time every year where we get to connect and invest in the very best of the next generation of Australian artists – celebrating their achievements, providing them with training and importantly creating a national network for them that stays with them throughout their careers,” says PICA director/CEO Hannah Mathews

Hatched: National Graduate Show is at PICA in Northbridge from August 2 to October 13.

by STEPHEN POLLOCK