The Beast of Intimacy's Burden | 2020 | Wreckers Artspace, Brisbane
The objects in Beasts of Intimacy’s Burden recline at the cross-section of wounded desire and lavish materiality. Their lustrous surface a facade that conceals their structural weakness and an ephemeral disposition. As assemblages of Baroque sensibilities, fetish labour and contemporary sexuality they are chimeras. Some think they are furnishings, some sex toys and others architectural surfaces. Between them, they might have different opinions of themselves but they share the distinct sentiment of aniconic vehicles for erotic lack.
The objects in Beasts of Intimacy’s Burden recline at the cross-section of wounded desire and lavish materiality. Their lustrous surface a facade that conceals their structural weakness and an ephemeral disposition. As assemblages of Baroque sensibilities, fetish labour and contemporary sexuality they are chimeras. Some think they are furnishings, some sex toys and others architectural surfaces. Between them, they might have different opinions of themselves but they share the distinct sentiment of aniconic vehicles for erotic lack.
Summer Residency Showcase, Tracking a Lineage: A collaboration with John Booth | 2020 | Outer Space, Brisbane
Tracking a Lineage was an archival installation that brought together a range of older works by the artist and the paraphernalia from her father’s research-based recreations of ancient Greek pottery. Created in Queensland in the 80’s using native Australian clays and appropriated ancient techniques, her father’s work sought to correct errors in purely theoretical research by implementing Archaeology in Action practices to better illustrate the construction of Red-Figure pottery. Upon visiting museums in Greece and London, the artist observed that her father’s hybrid pots were a 1:1 – almost perfect – simulation of the ancient remnants of this style. This created an appreciation for her father’s expertise and a reconsideration for how her father’s methods have shaped her as a contemporary artist. Yet, this childhood history also creates tension, as it raised an awareness of the appropriated visual lineage at play in her practice. Bringing about the problematics of authenticity, cultural appropriation, fetishisation and the conflicts of engaging sympathetically with an ancestry not your own but one that is inscribed in your history.
Tracking a Lineage was an archival installation that brought together a range of older works by the artist and the paraphernalia from her father’s research-based recreations of ancient Greek pottery. Created in Queensland in the 80’s using native Australian clays and appropriated ancient techniques, her father’s work sought to correct errors in purely theoretical research by implementing Archaeology in Action practices to better illustrate the construction of Red-Figure pottery. Upon visiting museums in Greece and London, the artist observed that her father’s hybrid pots were a 1:1 – almost perfect – simulation of the ancient remnants of this style. This created an appreciation for her father’s expertise and a reconsideration for how her father’s methods have shaped her as a contemporary artist. Yet, this childhood history also creates tension, as it raised an awareness of the appropriated visual lineage at play in her practice. Bringing about the problematics of authenticity, cultural appropriation, fetishisation and the conflicts of engaging sympathetically with an ancestry not your own but one that is inscribed in your history.
Intimate Immensity group exhibition curated by Katherine Dionysus and Amy-Clare McCarthy | 2019 | Outer Space, Brisbane
For thousands of years, people have looked to the stars and the sky for mapping and wayfinding, to tell and share stories, and to try to understand our place in the infinite universe. Across different time periods and geographies, people have sought the spiritual through the celestial, and identified constellations to orientate themselves within something monumental and unfathomable. We are guided by the sun and the moon, through the changing light of day, and the rise and fall of the tides. This exhibition brings together six artists whose work considers our relationship to the cosmos, translating the immense scale of cosmic time and space into tangible moments.
For thousands of years, people have looked to the stars and the sky for mapping and wayfinding, to tell and share stories, and to try to understand our place in the infinite universe. Across different time periods and geographies, people have sought the spiritual through the celestial, and identified constellations to orientate themselves within something monumental and unfathomable. We are guided by the sun and the moon, through the changing light of day, and the rise and fall of the tides. This exhibition brings together six artists whose work considers our relationship to the cosmos, translating the immense scale of cosmic time and space into tangible moments.
Exhibiting artists | Ali Bezer, Anastasia Booth, Sundari Carmody, Kinly Grey, Jenna Lee, Lisa Sammut
Exhibition catalogue | Intimate Immensity Amy-Clare McCarthy and Katherine Dionysius
Photographic documentation | Anastasia Booth
Exhibition catalogue | Intimate Immensity Amy-Clare McCarthy and Katherine Dionysius
Photographic documentation | Anastasia Booth
Netherworlds curated by Amy-Clare McCarthy & Kieran Swann | 2016/2017 | Firstdraft, Sydney and Seventh Gallery, Melbourne
NETHERWORLDS are grappling at the corners of the everyday, carving dark sanctums thick with power, love, and potential. Through object and performance, this exhibition claims space between contemporary art and the spiritual. Informed by emergent contemporary relationships between ideas of magic, mysticism, cultural ritual, and art making, NETHERWORLDS reflects on theories of early performance as invocational ritual, and prehistoric art as sympathetic magic (first proposed by ethnographer Richard Andree). Drawing on ideas of communitas, perceived and actual power, and the exoticised ‘other’, NETHERWORLDS foregrounds contemporary perspectives on the crafting of safe space and the empowerment of diverse artists through ritual and talisman on creative contexts.
Through her sonic practice, Naomi Blacklock subverts the history of her gender and cultural identity as ‘othered’ via accusations of witchraft or exoticised as ‘mystical’; Anastasia Booth embodies the subversive and mythological ‘Baubo’ – comic, lusty, and lascivious; Chantal Fraser questions the milieu of art, culture, and adornment; Caitlin Franzmann explores the role of the diviner to work with methods and symbols of ritual in contemporary work; Clay Kerrigan melds artistic process and goetic ritual to craft collage-portraits; and Blake Lawrence considers images and encounters of men who have sex with men through the lens of natural spiritual practice.
NETHERWORLDS are grappling at the corners of the everyday, carving dark sanctums thick with power, love, and potential. Through object and performance, this exhibition claims space between contemporary art and the spiritual. Informed by emergent contemporary relationships between ideas of magic, mysticism, cultural ritual, and art making, NETHERWORLDS reflects on theories of early performance as invocational ritual, and prehistoric art as sympathetic magic (first proposed by ethnographer Richard Andree). Drawing on ideas of communitas, perceived and actual power, and the exoticised ‘other’, NETHERWORLDS foregrounds contemporary perspectives on the crafting of safe space and the empowerment of diverse artists through ritual and talisman on creative contexts.
Through her sonic practice, Naomi Blacklock subverts the history of her gender and cultural identity as ‘othered’ via accusations of witchraft or exoticised as ‘mystical’; Anastasia Booth embodies the subversive and mythological ‘Baubo’ – comic, lusty, and lascivious; Chantal Fraser questions the milieu of art, culture, and adornment; Caitlin Franzmann explores the role of the diviner to work with methods and symbols of ritual in contemporary work; Clay Kerrigan melds artistic process and goetic ritual to craft collage-portraits; and Blake Lawrence considers images and encounters of men who have sex with men through the lens of natural spiritual practice.
Exhibiting artists | Naomi Blacklock, Anastasia Booth, Caitlin Franzman, Chantal Fraser, Clay Kerrigan, Blake Lawrence
Exhibition documentation | Dom Krupinski
Exhibition documentation | Dom Krupinski
For the Temple: Ortive Fundament | 2017 | Metro Arts, Brisbane
For the Temple investigates female agency through personal narrative, mysticism, astrology and mythology. Gesturing towards her interest in using the materials from fetish wear Booth’s new banner sculptures use leather and chain to evoke the abstract compositions of Hilma af Klint and the astrological entities – the moon and the Pleiades – used to date Sappho’s Midnight Poem. The exhibition space will play host to the final performance of Ortive Fundament. This ritual plays with the phallic in Freudian theories through the adoption of the female mythological figures found in his study.
For the Temple investigates female agency through personal narrative, mysticism, astrology and mythology. Gesturing towards her interest in using the materials from fetish wear Booth’s new banner sculptures use leather and chain to evoke the abstract compositions of Hilma af Klint and the astrological entities – the moon and the Pleiades – used to date Sappho’s Midnight Poem. The exhibition space will play host to the final performance of Ortive Fundament. This ritual plays with the phallic in Freudian theories through the adoption of the female mythological figures found in his study.
Anasyrma performance at Netherworlds curated by Amy-Clare McCarthy & Kieran Swann | 2018 | Spring Hill Reservoir, Brisbane
NETHERWORLDS brings together the work of six artists, exploring the relationship between magic, mysticism, and artmaking. Drawing on ideas of communitas and of perceived and actual power, NETHERWORLDS presents overlapping and intersecting spaces for queer spiritualities, feminist mythologies, personalised cultural ritual, and new ways to imagine the world. Anasyrma was a ritual performance that explored erotic jest; the anasyrma gesture as a subversive feminist tactic, through the conventions of Dionysian theatre and fetishism by using handmade arse-less chaps and terracotta masks made by her father in the 80's.
NETHERWORLDS brings together the work of six artists, exploring the relationship between magic, mysticism, and artmaking. Drawing on ideas of communitas and of perceived and actual power, NETHERWORLDS presents overlapping and intersecting spaces for queer spiritualities, feminist mythologies, personalised cultural ritual, and new ways to imagine the world. Anasyrma was a ritual performance that explored erotic jest; the anasyrma gesture as a subversive feminist tactic, through the conventions of Dionysian theatre and fetishism by using handmade arse-less chaps and terracotta masks made by her father in the 80's.
Preaching to the Perverted: Club Issue | 2018 | Institute of Modern Art: First Thursdays
Preaching to the Perverted: Club Issue was a First Thursdays event that aligned my interests in fetish culture, Freudian psychoanalysis, and classical ideas of desire, the IMA Screening Room was reconstructed as a dungeon-like venue, bathed in red light, for performance, music, and subversion.
Preaching to the Perverted: Club Issue was a First Thursdays event that aligned my interests in fetish culture, Freudian psychoanalysis, and classical ideas of desire, the IMA Screening Room was reconstructed as a dungeon-like venue, bathed in red light, for performance, music, and subversion.
Collaborative Performance Anastasia Booth and Naomi Blacklock produced by people+artist+place. Star-Crossed Rivers was a performance outcome from a one-day collaborative intensive with year 10 students from Brisbane State High School | 2018 | South Bank, Brisbane
Contemporary artists, Naomi Blacklock and Anastasia Booth worked with year 10 students from Brisbane State High School to perform a contemporary retelling of the famous Punjab love story Sohni Mahiwal. Sohni Mahiwal is an old tale that centres around Sohni, a heroine who longs to be with her true love who lives across the river. In order to be with him, Sohni crosses the river each night using an earthenware pot to keep her afloat. However, one night her sister-in-law replaces the pot with a vessel of unbaked clay which dissolves in the water and causes Sohni to vanish. A tale told through movement, this mesmerising performance spoke to universal notions of love and longing.
Contemporary artists, Naomi Blacklock and Anastasia Booth worked with year 10 students from Brisbane State High School to perform a contemporary retelling of the famous Punjab love story Sohni Mahiwal. Sohni Mahiwal is an old tale that centres around Sohni, a heroine who longs to be with her true love who lives across the river. In order to be with him, Sohni crosses the river each night using an earthenware pot to keep her afloat. However, one night her sister-in-law replaces the pot with a vessel of unbaked clay which dissolves in the water and causes Sohni to vanish. A tale told through movement, this mesmerising performance spoke to universal notions of love and longing.
Common Scold collaborative exhibition with Naomi Blacklock, curated by Amy-Clare McCarthy & Kieran Swann | 2018 | Bus Projects, Melbourne
In the common law of crime in England and Wales of the 1500s (and as recently as the 1960s), women deemed to be ‘quarrelsome’ were secured in iron muzzles, or bridles, which inhibited the tongue. Considered a preventative measure, women were forced to wear these in public and led through the town. At different times a punishment for women accused of gossiping, inciting riots, and accused of witchcraft, the device was used for centuries to punish, humiliate, and silence women Here combining their sonic and installation practices, artists Naomi Blacklock and Anastasia Booth draw on their shared investigations into the feminine body, the archetype of the witch, and the history of these devices - utilising ritual, the body, and other materials to consider the possibilities of agency and rebellion even when the tongue has been silenced.
In the common law of crime in England and Wales of the 1500s (and as recently as the 1960s), women deemed to be ‘quarrelsome’ were secured in iron muzzles, or bridles, which inhibited the tongue. Considered a preventative measure, women were forced to wear these in public and led through the town. At different times a punishment for women accused of gossiping, inciting riots, and accused of witchcraft, the device was used for centuries to punish, humiliate, and silence women Here combining their sonic and installation practices, artists Naomi Blacklock and Anastasia Booth draw on their shared investigations into the feminine body, the archetype of the witch, and the history of these devices - utilising ritual, the body, and other materials to consider the possibilities of agency and rebellion even when the tongue has been silenced.
Preaching to the Perverted | 2016 | Metro Arts, Brisbane
Preaching to the Perverted presents a new series of sculptures and digitally mediated performances. Employing the material sensuality of Baroque sculpture and the humour of goddess ritual performance, the exhibition poetically investigates Freudian fetishism. Taking its cue from the anthropological objects in Freud’s studio, Preaching to the Perverted considers the gendered rhetoric of psychoanalytic theory via an inflation of its mythological and mystic undercurrents. By drawing attention to and re-enacting key female characters – goddesses, saints, constellations – Booth plays with the representation and omission of female sexuality and agency in Freudian discourse. These evocations speak to Booth’s fascination with depictions of female desire, sexuality and authority in a contemporary context.
Preaching to the Perverted presents a new series of sculptures and digitally mediated performances. Employing the material sensuality of Baroque sculpture and the humour of goddess ritual performance, the exhibition poetically investigates Freudian fetishism. Taking its cue from the anthropological objects in Freud’s studio, Preaching to the Perverted considers the gendered rhetoric of psychoanalytic theory via an inflation of its mythological and mystic undercurrents. By drawing attention to and re-enacting key female characters – goddesses, saints, constellations – Booth plays with the representation and omission of female sexuality and agency in Freudian discourse. These evocations speak to Booth’s fascination with depictions of female desire, sexuality and authority in a contemporary context.
Sepulchre | 2015 | Boxcopy, Brisbane
Over the summer Anastasia utilised the gallery as a studio space, creating a new body of work exploring specific mythological figures and contemporary rituals, drawing parallels between these personages, and how their history spoke to themes of volition, desire, pleasure and disillusionment. Sepulchre brought together the outcome of this research, with an embodiment of Baubo as a mediated performance, the sculptural remnants of a star gazing performance where the artist located Andromeda, and an abstraction of Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Teresa.
Over the summer Anastasia utilised the gallery as a studio space, creating a new body of work exploring specific mythological figures and contemporary rituals, drawing parallels between these personages, and how their history spoke to themes of volition, desire, pleasure and disillusionment. Sepulchre brought together the outcome of this research, with an embodiment of Baubo as a mediated performance, the sculptural remnants of a star gazing performance where the artist located Andromeda, and an abstraction of Bernini's The Ecstasy of St. Teresa.
POETRY EVENT | 2015 | Boxcopy, Brisbane
POETRY EVENT is a poetry reading performance that invites contemporary artists to explore the intimacy of spoken word and the sensual experience of text and subjective narrative through personal work or found literature. Performed on Valentine's Day it featured 'couples' performing together.
POETRY EVENT is a poetry reading performance that invites contemporary artists to explore the intimacy of spoken word and the sensual experience of text and subjective narrative through personal work or found literature. Performed on Valentine's Day it featured 'couples' performing together.
Dead Wait | 2014 | QUT H Block Galleries, Brisbane
Means are the Ends: The Command Issue | 2014 | LEVEL, Brisbane
Means are the Ends: The Command Issue centers on the problematic relationship between feminine desire and divergent sexual practice. During Booth’s 3 month residency at LEVEL her sculptural and video works have looked to the rituals, materials and iconographies associated with certain divergent subcultures. By appropriating these tropes, her resulting exhibition considers how these signs function in portraying female sexuality and in what ways this visual language can be subverted or re-represented.
Means are the Ends: The Command Issue centers on the problematic relationship between feminine desire and divergent sexual practice. During Booth’s 3 month residency at LEVEL her sculptural and video works have looked to the rituals, materials and iconographies associated with certain divergent subcultures. By appropriating these tropes, her resulting exhibition considers how these signs function in portraying female sexuality and in what ways this visual language can be subverted or re-represented.
Artist Studio Residency | 2014 | LEVEL, Brisbane
During Booth’s 3 month residency at LEVEL her sculptural and video works have looked to the rituals, materials and iconographies associated with certain divergent subcultures. By appropriating these tropes, her resulting exhibition considers how these signs function in portraying female sexuality and in what ways this visual language can be subverted or re-represented.
During Booth’s 3 month residency at LEVEL her sculptural and video works have looked to the rituals, materials and iconographies associated with certain divergent subcultures. By appropriating these tropes, her resulting exhibition considers how these signs function in portraying female sexuality and in what ways this visual language can be subverted or re-represented.
POETRY EVENT | 2014 | LEVEL, Brisbane
POETRY EVENT is a poetry reading performance that invites contemporary artists to explore the intimacy of spoken word and the sensual experience of text and subjective narrative through personal work or found literature.
POETRY EVENT is a poetry reading performance that invites contemporary artists to explore the intimacy of spoken word and the sensual experience of text and subjective narrative through personal work or found literature.
Crude Tools, Feeble Actions | 2013 | Metro Arts, Brisbane
Crude Tools, Feeble Actions examines home-made BDSM objects and sites; finding the lapses that occur between the fanciful, highly erotic and DIY aesthetic. The exhibition expands on Booth’s interest in drawing associations between art history and erotica; how notions of materiality, marginality, and ritual are shared across discourses. Incorporating installation, sculpture, video, performance and sound, the works aim to examine and make tangible the paradoxes that encompass these different modes of labour, where sensuality has the potential to fall short.
Crude Tools, Feeble Actions examines home-made BDSM objects and sites; finding the lapses that occur between the fanciful, highly erotic and DIY aesthetic. The exhibition expands on Booth’s interest in drawing associations between art history and erotica; how notions of materiality, marginality, and ritual are shared across discourses. Incorporating installation, sculpture, video, performance and sound, the works aim to examine and make tangible the paradoxes that encompass these different modes of labour, where sensuality has the potential to fall short.
Ache Deep | 2012 | Current Projects, Brisbane
There is a small shiver working its way up my spine, as the cold metal slides against my skin.
Calf, thigh, crutch.
Secretly I’m aching for it.
Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep.
Ache Deep draws upon the aesthetic of medical fetishism, taking seemingly benign objects and working them into parodies of therapeutic implements. Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep. Playing with figuration and abstraction, depiction and omission, function and stasis. Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep. Folded leather has vaginal like creases while glass panes rest (and drip), a speculum stretching. Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep. Materials laid out in preparation for use. Because you know, yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep.
There is a small shiver working its way up my spine, as the cold metal slides against my skin.
Calf, thigh, crutch.
Secretly I’m aching for it.
Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep.
Ache Deep draws upon the aesthetic of medical fetishism, taking seemingly benign objects and working them into parodies of therapeutic implements. Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep. Playing with figuration and abstraction, depiction and omission, function and stasis. Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep. Folded leather has vaginal like creases while glass panes rest (and drip), a speculum stretching. Yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep. Materials laid out in preparation for use. Because you know, yeah baby it hurts, it aches real deep.
