Pricked — Exhibition Text, Interlude Gallery

Gillian Lavery, Glean, 2016, ink on vellum, 150 x 170cm (Image courtesy of Interlude Gallery)

I recently collaborated with Sydney artist Yang-En Hume to write an experimental exhibition text for her group exhibition Pricked at Interlude Gallery as part of Interlude’s Writers’ Program. The exhibition features work by Yang-En Hume, Kate Andrews, Gillian Lavery and Hannah Toohey. Pricked runs until October 8th, at Interlude Gallery, Glebe Point Road, Sydney.

The text channels the show through a poem; giving voice to one of the forgotten women remembered by the exhibition:

Kate Andrews, Wrapped 1, 2016, Woollen blankets and cotton thread, 203cm x 155cm (Image courtesy of Interlude Gallery)

Woven together in place. Needles driven through,

Driving through us,

They pin me to the spot.

It is methodical work, and we work hunched

For the products of love.

Blood beads in crimson domes from a pricked finger.

Yang-En Hume, Rupture (detail), 2016, Dimensions Variable, Lace, doilies, synthetic hair, wool, latex, silicone, embroidery hoops (Image courtesy of Interlude Gallery)

A far off architecture for a mi-nute moment.

An unknown place held close.

The finger is sucked and put back to work.

The rhythm is lost.

I squint and see the geometries of lace unfurl a net before me.

A net to catch me.

I will push a startled, blinking eye to the centre of a Teneriffe spider-wheel and peer through,

Caught.

I carry on

A hair has found its wayward way into the fine work.

It has interlaced itself within the threads.

I will pull it out from the root

And knot the tendril in, taking its curling line for a walk across the points.

Drawing with the dark thread.

Arcs and coils,

Stars,

A constellation of lines.

Tracing movement, marking life.