WHEN : 13th – 15th September / Opening 13th, 6:00 – 9:00pm
WHERE : Jugglers Art Space
Following last year’s successful Wilgefortis exhibition at the Art Factory Gallery, we have decided to present another show tangentially inspired by the fictional Medieval saint of anxiety, grief, escape, and liberation, patroness of the oppressed and beleaguered.
The artists’ brief this year was rejection. The legend of Wilgefortis can be read as a story of rejection: she rejected her father’s choice for a husband, who in turn rejected Wilgefortis when she miraculously grew a beard.
Rejection is a part of our daily lives. Every decision implies a rejection of a different course of action or object. We choose Thai instead of Italian for lunch, we decide to wear the blue instead of the green shirt, we shop at the weekend farmer’s market rather than at Coles.
As artists we are also involved in all kinds of rejection. Maybe our application for funding is rejected, or our work is rejected from a potential show – alternatively, we reject painting in favour of printmaking, or we choose one work to exhibit, thus rejecting another. Sometimes, personal rejection can become a creative inspiration for the artist.
The idea of rejection can also be explored in terms of our disposable culture – on a daily basis we reject items we deem no longer useful.
One of the aims of this exhibition is to challenge and motivate the viewer to rethink rejection and her/his response. When we reject something it does not cease to exist – and we can choose to reverse the rejection, or make something new out of it.
The six artists participating in this exhibition have been encouraged to consider all the possible implications and applications of the theme, including recycling (which may involve reusing materials or even reprocessing previous work).
This year’s participants are Salome Cardenas, Vanessa Cox, Timotheos Roussos (curator), Ann Roworth, Margot Runge, and Maria Tancred.
