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 Franzman 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.
With further writing by curators Amy-Clare McCarthy and Kieran Swann reflecting on the intertwined history of art and magic, and emergent queer, feminist, and culturally diverse practices, NETHERWORLDS opens dark and powerful spaces for those who know their true names.
Artists: Naomi Blacklock, Anastasia Booth, Chantal Fraser, Caitlin Franzmann, Blake Lawrence and Clay Kerrigan.
Curated by Amy-Clare McCarthy and Kieran Swann.
NETHERWORLDS was presented with the support of the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland. The Spring Hill Reservoir exhibition was supported by Backbone Youth Arts. NETHERWORLDS was conceived and initially presented with the support of Firstdraft Gallery and the National Association of Visual Arts (NAVA)
Spring Hill Reservoir: 9 June 2018, 6-9pm
Seventh Gallery: 6-22 December, 2017
The Walls, Gold Coast: 5-19 August, 2017
Firstdraft, Sydney: 5-29 October, 2016
As part of Firstdraft’s Emerging Curators Program
Documentation at Spring Hill Reservoir:
Video documentation of the night can be viewed here.
Images by Louis Lim
Chantal Fraser, Summit, 2018.
Chantal Fraser, Summit, 2018.
Naomi Blacklock, Padma, 2018 and Clay Kerrigan, Gate, Group, and Road, 2018
Anastasia Booth, Anasyrma, 2018
Caitlin Franzmann, Mutual Making, 2018
Caitlin Franzmann, Mutual Making, 2018
Caitlin Franzmann, Mutual Making, 2018
Anastasia Booth, Anasyrma, 2018
Anastasia Booth, Anasyrma, 2018
Anastasia Booth, Anasyrma, 2018
Blake Lawrence, Palimpsest, 2018
Blake Lawrence, Palimpsest, 2018
Naomi Blacklock, Padma, 2018
Naomi Blacklock, Padma, 2018
Naomi Blacklock, Padma, 2018, image by Charlie Hillhouse
Naomi Blacklock, Padma, 2018, image by Charlie Hillhouse
Exhibition documentation at Seventh:
Documentation by Dom Krapski
foreground: Naomi Blacklock, left to right: Blake Lawrence, Clay Kerrigan, Caitlin Franzmann, Anastasia Booth, Chantal Fraser
foreground: Caitlin Franzmann, left to right: Chantal Fraser, Anastasia Booth, Naomi Blacklock, Blake Lawrence
Exhibition documentation at The Walls (opening night with performances):
foreground: Naomi Blacklock, Parallel Presence
Clay Kerrigan; Gate & Road
Caitlin Franzmann; Magical Thinking
above: Anastasia Booth, Portrait of Baubo
Naomi Blacklock, Parallel Presence (in performance)
Naomi Blacklock, Parallel Presence (in performance)
Exhibition documentation at Firstdraft
rear: Chantal Fraser, #traditional #blurredlines
foreground: Caitlin Franzmann, Magical Thinking
documentation by Anastasia Booth
Chantal Fraser, #traditional #blurred lines, detail
documentation by Zan Wimberley
Caitlin Franzmann, Magical Thinking
documentation by Zan Wimberley
Anastasia Booth, Portrait of Scylla
documentation by Anastasia Booth
screens: Anastasia Booth, Portrait of Artemis & Portrait of Baubo
wall: Clay Kerrigan, Untitled (Collages 1-3)
documentation by Zan Wimberley
Clay Kerrigan, Untitled (Collage 1)
documentation by Kieran Swann
Clay Kerrigan, Road, Sigil, & Untitled (Process)
documentation by Kieran Swann
Blake Lawrence, Box Set
documentation by Anastasia Booth
Blake Lawrence, Box Set (detail)
documentation by Anastasia Booth
Naomi Blacklock, Parallel Presence (performance)
documentation by Blake Lawrence
Naomi Blacklock, Parallel Presence (residue)
documentation by Zan Wimberley
Naomi Blacklock, Parallel Presence (residue)
documentation by Zan Wimberley
Amy-Clare McCarthy 