Remission

Remission, 2023

Photographs, found picture frames (rattan and antique oak).

46 x 61 cm and 60.4 x 44.8 cm

Massey University Clearview. 9-21/6/23.

Remission is part of a series of works from a trans-disciplinary project that is concerned with exploring creative drawing, performative, and audiovisual methods responsive to confessions of physical and emotional trauma mapped through the stages of internalised recovery.

Remission mediates my experience of assault, recovery and the socio-political structures that govern the translation of women’s identity and acts of violence towards them. The transformative journey is first captured through action drawing and performative erasure, which is then extended and documented in the archival traditions of still life and self-portraiture.

The sculptural instalation of antiquated oak and wicker frames are synonymous with established ideals of westernized domesticity, but the compositional forms within subvert the traditions of the genres to expose and renounce the act of violence and uphold the process of redemption. Ornate vessels and lavish drapery are substituted for a clinical glass vial that contains water muddied by the dissolution of the emotive drawing. Traces of the affected drawing, evidence of trauma and healing, rest behind the photograph of the artist caught up in the journey with splashes of paint animating her face. Her presence, on public display in the Clearview gallery belies expectations of stoic indifference, and reveals the rawness and power gained from being in remission from acts disclosed.