This exhibition brings together a selection of emerging, established and significant Australian artists who engage with the complex range of emotions that we classify as love. The exhibition showcases both historical and contemporary artworks over a range of media to trace how artistic notions of love have changed over time. The language of love embraces a variety of emotions including joy, elation, desire, comfort, longing, loss and melancholia. These feelings can be romantic, familial, platonic and divine. Love… more than a four letter word tracks the journey of love from its beginnings to its endings and can be divided generally into three sections: the day I met you, where you end and I begin and living without you.
The day I met you explores love in its founding and floundering moments. The formation of loving relationships shaped through birth, marriage or the internet are apparent in many works, from the awkward 80s theatrics of Frank Bendinelli and Robert Randall’s Blind Date to the 16th century historical paintingWedding Feast at Cana. Where you end and I begin looks at the intertwining relationships that love inspires. This idea of separate and togetherness can be found in the tension between looking after oneself and caring for another in collaborative duo Clark Beaumont’s video Undress and of the merging of two souls in Joy Hester’s Images. Living without you delves into the heartbreak and loss of a relationship’s end and the enduring power of love to carry on despite the absence of a loved one. Courtney Coomb’sAfter Richard and Brian Sanstrom’s Incision/Closure are two such works that examine the universal heartache of breakups, unrequited love, and bereavement.
Love… more than a four letter word embraces these universally shared yet often unspoken experiences to expand our understanding of love within the ever changing face of contemporary society. It is a bold reminder that despite the conflicts and crisis love faces, the enormous capacity for human love can be a powerful tool for generosity, inclusiveness, sharing, and questioning.
Exhibition Opening: Saturday 21 May 2016, 11am
Gallery Programs: In Conversation: Love through the Ages
Please join us for a conversation around the changing objects, rituals and ceremonies of love and how artistic representations of love reflect this. Join the discussion with Professor Alistair Blanchard, Damien Fegan from The Abbey Museum and Claire Sourgnes, Moreton Bay Regional Council Art Galleries Network Coordinator. Saturday 21 May 2016, 12.30pm
Artist Talks : Courtney Coombs, Brian Sanstrom, Martin Smith and Jenny Watson will discuss their art practice and inspiration behind some of the works in the LOVE… more than a four letter word. Saturday 11 June 2016, 11am
Image: Clark Beaumont, Love I and II 2014, digital type C photographs, Collection of the Gold Coast City Art Gallery – Acquired from the 2015 Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Photography Award
