TANDEM is a series of new site specific and performance works by Brisbane based collaboration Parallel Park. TANDEM looks at how humor can be utilised as a means of exploring same sex relationships, social stigmas, stereotypes and beyond…
Parallel Park is the collaborative art practice of Brisbane-based artists Holly Bates and Tayla Haggarty. The collaboration is concentrated on exploring the external influences that impact lesbian sexuality and same sex relationships such as: patriarchal society, stereotypes and social stigmas. The collaboration heavily employs play as process, which takes form through found objects, performance, video and installation. The engagement with play and spontaneity allows for both practices to weave into the making process, resulting in erotically and humorously charged works that contain a strong sense of duality. The creative duo have worked collaboratively for two years and have exhibited works at the QUT H-Block Gallery in shows such as ‘EXIT’ (2014), ‘Before All Else’ (2015) as well as ‘Wet’ (2015) presented at oral ARI.
HOLLY BATES (hollybates.com)
Holly Bates is a Brisbane-based artist, working individually and as one half of the collaboration Parallel Park with artist Tayla Haggarty. Working across a range of mediums such as painting, installation, performance and video, her practice currently seeks to challenge pre-conceived notions of female sexuality depicted by patriarchal culture. Using feminist approaches to art making, the practice explores personal narratives that are formed by the artist’s position as a lesbian feminist, and reflect on body insecurities, sexual fantasies, pleasure, relationships and social stigmas. Holly has recently completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree at the Queensland University of Technology in 2015, graduating with first class and two academic prizes. Holly has exhibited within showcases at QUT, The Block, Metro Arts, The Hold and through local artist run initiatives in Brisbane.
TAYLA HAGGARTY (taylajayhaggarty.com, under maintenance) Tayla Haggarty is a Brisbane-based artist whose work heavily engages with installation, sculpture and found objects. Her practice, both individually and as a part of collaboration Parallel Park, explores how the lesbian feminist identity can be constructed through art making, to formally articulate and archive lesbian experience. The works negotiate elements of tension, balance and an investigation of ‘sameness’, in the context of relationship politics and queer identity. They specifically encompass the arrangement of everyday utilitarian objects and materials into finely balanced sculptural compositions, so to transform the familiar into sites of tension and unease. Tayla has recently completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree at the Queensland University of Technology in 2015, graduating with first class and two academic prizes. Her works have been exhibited locally at Brisbane galleries such as The Hold Artspace, Metro Arts, Boxcopy, Oral Ari, The Block QUT, as well as internationally at the Ildiko Butler Gallery in New York.
This is a one night only event.
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