this is a conversation piece

VENUE: 107 Redfern

Language may be performed, edited, repeated, crescendoed and silenced, as a collective means of navigating and locating one’s self. However, language may not be transparent. Language is unforgiving, no matter how hard we try to form clarity, we cannot materially replicate the translucency of unexpressed thought - language has permanence and demand, but not necessarily an answer or resolution.

Curated by Sarah Rose, 'this is a conversation piece' presents a new installation of text-based works by emerging artist Jennifer Brady. This exhibition acts as a provocation for an open conversation; an exchange between artist and audience, private and public, observer and participant. A confessional and cyclic monologue is established as Brady’s thoughts and over- thoughts become engaged in a larger dialogue with the space, becoming physically manifested; visceral, embodied, and present.

As a communicative platform, Brady’s installation and performance, explores internal thought processes and the potential (failure) of language in coherently articulating the translucency of the un-expressible. Self-reflexive and raw, the works look to personal failure and inadequacy, aligning with new-punk methodologies, do-it-yourself, and lo-fi aesthetics; processes that encompass the unrefined, and imperfect.

Evolving from personal experiences with mental health, Brady employs language as a device to communicate thoughts and emotions that are difficult to articulate; uncomfortable, confusing, and confronting. In doing so, Brady demonstrates the adaptation of pre-existing structures of language to provoke conversations surrounding mental discomfort, anxiety, and state of consciousness. The immersive and interactive nature of this installation encourages the audience to engage with the work directly; walk through, between, within, and on the works, actively taking part in the exchange.

Exhibition opens Wednesday 5th June | 6-9pm.

Continues until Sunday 16th June.

Gallery open Tuesday – Sunday | 11am-5pm.

Performance times

Opening Night | 5th June | 7.30pm.
Sunday 9th June | 2.00pm.
Sunday 16th June | 2.00pm (Finissage).

About the Artists

Artist: Jennifer Brady

Jennifer Brady is a Sydney based emerging artist who recently completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the University of New South Wales - Art & Design. Primarily engaging with language and ‘word art’, she has been actively involved in group shows since mid 2016 in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. 2018 saw Brady execute her first solo exhibition Betwixt and Between at Gaffa Gallery, Sydney; and both exhibit and perform at Brunswick Street Gallery, Airspace Projects, Bedrock Collective’s Long Weekend, and Women In Music Empowerment Day among others. Her practice has recently extended into curatorial realms, co-curating the outdoor exhibition Piece of Mind (2018) at Gallery Lane Cove + Creative Studios with Yanchen Li for Mental Health Month, and curating the group show d.i.why? (2019) at Kudos Gallery, Paddington. Brady was a finalist for the Lethbridge 10,000 Small Scale Art Award (2017), Jenny Birt Award (2018), and the Kudos Emerging Artist and Designer Award (2018). In 2019 Brady is anticipating a second solo exhibition and further experimentation into a curatorial practice.

Curator: Sarah Rose

Sarah Rose is an emerging Sydney-based curator currently undergoing her Masters of Curating and Cultural Leadership at UNSW Art & Design.

Rose is currently a member of the Art Gallery of NSW’s Youth Collective working to cultivate new forms of cultural education, exchanges, and accessibility for youths.

She is also the co-founder, director and curator for More Than Reproduction, a Sydney-based collective promoting women in printmaking. Rose is interested in emerging practitioners, and focuses specifically on practices that exemplify materiality, the experiential, and the contemporary evolution beyond medium specificity. Conceptually, she oscillates between dual notions of nature – environmental and behavioural, investigating established binaries and exchanges, with a current focus on our relationship with the natural world and human/human interactions. Previously she co-curated ‘More Than Reproduction’ in March 2018, and ‘In Our Nature’ at Hazelhurst Arts Centre in May 2019. Upcoming, Rose will be presenting her curated exhibitions, ‘this is a conversation piece’ at 107 Projects in June 2019, and ‘Hybridity’ at AirSpace Projects in November 2019.