Pain In The Art
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 29, 2003
BOOFHEADS AND SCRUBBERS REVENGE
Where Penrith Regional Gallery, 86 River Road, Emu Plains
When Daily,
10am-5pm, until September 28
How much Free
More information
4735 1100
Britain can keep its enfants terribles, 'cause we've got our own, reports DOMINIQUE ANGELORO.
The young British artists (YBAs) wore bad behaviour like a badge of honour in the 1990s. They were young, loud, crude and drunk. And they made art that reflected their attitudes. Tracey Emin famously submitted her filthy bed for the 1999 Turner Prize, while Sarah Lucas fashioned two fried eggs and a kebab into female sexual organs. And, of course, Damien Hirst cut farmyard animals in half and suspended them in formaldehyde.
Perhaps you were under the impression that Australia's contemporary artists tended towards better behaviour. The exhibition at the Penrith Regional Gallery suggests otherwise.
Boofheads and Scrubbers Revenge is a rude and rowdy show that pays homage to the western suburbs and affectionately hams up associated cultural stereotypes. The works by 15 Sydney artists include beer bottles, bongs, scrubbing brushes, bums, breasts, cigarettes and cricket.
And unlike the self-consciously cool YBAs, these Australian artists infuse their work with a unique flavour of self-deprecating humour.
Under John Kirkman and Victoria Harbutt's curation, the blokes and the sheilas take sides - on opposite sides of the gallery, that is.
In the boys' corner, beer rules. Michael Butler's installation features beer bottles decoupaged with pornographic material, while Michael Lindeman's cricket installation, When Indoor Mini Cricket Meets KB Lager, is comprised of tinnies.
Elsewhere, Robert Young has built visually striking sculptural assemblages out of entirely unexpected materials. The artist uses syringes, bongs and condoms in his highly aestheticised works, playfully contorting our typical associations with these derided cultural objects.
Meanwhile, in the girls' corner, Eugenia Raskopoulos takes the blokes' bravado and raises them one, photographing her lips, nipples and vagina in confronting close-ups.
This work, Portraits in Pinks, offers a celebration of the female form without apologies. A more subtle discomfort is provoked by Regina Walter's sepia-toned video, In, which cuts together footage of women dragging on cigarettes.
Merely describing the work seems to be an inadequate approach to introducing this exhibition. Much of the art pivots on simple concepts, but the experiences they deliver are different altogether. It's as if the artists were taking their revenge on your expectations of what the work will entail.
You might still find some of the work disagreeable, but chances are this is precisely the response the artists were aiming for. In the world of boofheads, scrubbers and bad behaviour, one doesn't aim to please.
However, this star-studded group of artists has evidently pushed some of the right buttons: Cherry Hood won the 2002 Archibald Prize and Tony Schwensen received the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship in 1998. Schwensen's work can also be seen this weekend in his solo show at the Sarah Cottier Gallery in Redfern.
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald