Four contemporary Australian artists have taken over the dynamic Ngununggula gallery in the Southern Highlands (90-minutes’ drive from Sydney) with a multidisciplinary exhibition that investigates the relationship between the human form and culture, femininity, sexuality, theatre and ritual.
Featuring new and existing works from Karen Black, Georgia Spain, Cybele Cox and Michelle Ussher, Once More With Feeling invites viewers to explore how ideals around femininity could be explored through alternative perspectives. With a focus on shapes, expressions and actions that are associated with the female bodies, the works expose moments in which mundane behaviours and movements blend into acts of modern ritual, as well as experimenting with themes of occultism and theatre, allowing the body to be re-examined within a collaborative space.
One of the most arresting pieces in the whole multi-room exhibition is ‘The Hag’, a life-size ceramic figure painted in earthy red tones that depicts an archetypal witch. This is the centrepiece of Cybele Cox’s contribution, a series of new ceramic sculptures exploring intimacy, sexuality and myth.
At a special preview of the exhibition, I was so fascinated by this powerful and confronting figure, positioned on hands and knees – like she is ready to give birth, sink into a yoga position, or rise up to a foe – that I had to speak to the artist about her. Cox elaborated:
“I was ready to do a full scale figure of ‘The Hag’, which came from a Hieronymus Bosch painting, a scene where the gates of hell are through a woman's legs… it's kind of funny, but it's also misogynistic. So that for me was a point of departure. You could say [the prompt] Once More With Feeling has a sort of a sweet, cushy feeling to it. But for me, I go to the depths.”
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The artist continued: “I think the Hag is something that we all recognise as a negative folklore. The witch or the old hag who kidnaps the children in the forest and, you know, puts them in the incinerator. Which, through my own understanding of mediaeval history and the witch hunts, is just a lie. It's actually the opposite, who's actually doing the kidnapping? The killing? Hello? My job is to flip the narrative, because by flipping the narrative, it's actually getting closer to the truth.
“So taking a negative image of the Hag, flipping that, and actually bringing power, bringing strength. She's got muscles, she's holding her body up, the veins are popping on this masculine form. But also, she's got these pendulous breasts, they have fed, they've actually nourished life, or just taken on the gravity of the body…”
Cox’s sculptures, including a troupe of smaller “Hagettes”, share a room with five large-scale paintings by Georgia Spain, whose similar earthy tones could fool you into thinking these works are all by one artist. Exploring the borders between understanding and unknowing, and abstraction and figuration, Spain’s paintings depict a crossroads where the inner emotional world and physical world collide.
The artists are paired up throughout the exhibition, and each space in the heritage building (a former dairy shed and veterinary clinic) is curated considerately. London-based artist Michelle Ussher is a big presence in this show, with a selection of paintings, ceramics and soundscapes featured. Her work aims to decolonise symbolic representations of the feminine and sexuality, and some of her most intriguing contributions include ceramic vessels that function as wind instruments, a sound piece incorporating pick-up lines from dating apps, and a crochet blanket with a cheeky “cock and balls” design, fit for Medusa’s lair.
During the exhibition, Ngununggula will present the highly anticipated second annual Midwinter Festival over three days and nights (June 23-25). A program of art, music, food and wine will transform the grounds – featuring the return of Ben Quilty’s large-scale Burning Man, a drone show, and live music from Electric Fields and others. Find out more here.
Whether you’re heading out for the festival or just for the exhibition, it is well worth gathering up your coven, making the drive from Sydney, and debriefing about its provocations over a farm-to-table meal by the crackling fire at the gorgeous on-site Hearth Café.
Once More With Feeling is now open free to the public until August 13.
