Mela Yerka: And The - The Surface Is Fine And Powdery

The title of the exhibition quotes Neil Armstrong’s second—and lesser known—utterance, upon landing on the Moon. It aptly points to the hidden stories of 19th century women, from aristocrats to courtesans, whose historical identities are too often defined only by their relationship with famous men of the period, and who form the subject of Yerka’s portrait paintings. In an endeavour to defamiliarise the audience while revealing one’s desire for discovery and sense of self worth, metaphorically depicted by humanity’s exploration of Mars, Yerka incorporates eerie martian landscapes and various materials such as marble dust and fluorescent pigment in her works.