The Flesh of All Things

THE FLESH OF ALL THINGS 2021

Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University grad show installation. The space was painted in a glowing hue with an eclectic range of artworks ‘emitting’ their stories from a combination of both abstract and explicit forms. It was titled The Flesh of All Things as a nod to Merleau-Ponty’s ideas of spatial, physiological, and energetic perceiving.

Each of these works is a world unto itself awaiting expansion: a pile of cold bronze pieces is in fact the negative shapes of a warm embrace between the artist and her daughter; clean white paper is violently torn and lit from behind revealing textural tranquility; a female form made of ever-soft modelling clay wears each finger mark that pushed her as far backwards as she could go without falling; a sweet pile of ruby-red Ashoka Dharmachakra candies tempts us with easy answers and the promise of inner peace; a 1950's purse-full of middle finger candles points to the 'bare essentials' of women trapped in a patriarchy; and a humble rag, the waste product of creative pursuits, is re-contextualised as an artwork in itself.

The show was cancelled at the last minute due to Covid lockdown restrictions, but was resurrected the following year by fifteen enterprising students who took it upon themselves to get 'seen'. Visit the group exhibition titled Unseen here.

Exhibition image of Elam School of Fine Arts at Auckland University grad show 2021

Ten bronze pieces of various sizes that look like fossils or bone fragments.

White paper with rips and textures over a lightbox frame.

Plasticine female figure bent backwards almost to the point of falling.

Pile of jewel-like candies on painted pink floor.

Wax middle finger candles ('slow burn') of various colours in a black ready-made 50's era purse.

A colourful used rag taped inside a gilded frame with safety-orange packing tape.