^{m_othering the perceptual ars poetica}

^{Counihan Gallery

233 Sydney Road, Brunswick
August 30 - September 29}

PARTICIPANTS

Olga Bennett, Simona Castricum, Bonita Ely, Abbra Kotlarczyk, Alice McIntosh, Josephine Mead, Ruth O’Leary, Lucreccia Quintanilla,
r e a, Katie Ryan, Antonia Sellbach and Amber Wallis.

Curated by Abbra Kotlarczyk and Antonia Sellbach. Text contributions by Jazz Money and Guest, Riggs.

OVERVIEW

m_othering the perceptual ars poetica is a group exhibition that gathers around expanded and intersectional approaches to mothering and parentage, to include not only the care of children but of the environment and cultural spaces—their histories, forms and legacies. The exhibition seeks to articulate how maternal roles—including support, custodianship and forms of return—are being approached within and at the sidelines of creative practice. As well as work made about motherhood, this exhibition will reflect on some of the perceptual displacements and continuities that occur within creative practice, in light of expectations and realities of care-taking and custodianship more broadly. In this way, how might ‘m_othering’ function as a framework able to speak to a wide range of other care-taking practices? Further, how might we consider diverse forms of m_othering as creative praxis; as an embodied ars poetica—a term that articulates a state of being, rather than meaning.

EVENTS

Exhibition Opening

Thursday August 29, 2019
6–8pm

Opening remarks by Dr Jen Rae.

READINGS

Keep in Touch by Jazz Money

Women as Columns or Pillars AKA Holding Up AKA Societal Scaffolding AKA Support Structures by Josephine Mead

Catalogue Essay by Abbra Kotlarczyk

A Review of the Barkly Square Parent’s Room by Guest, Riggs

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This project takes place on the traditional lands of the Kulin nations, always and forever the home of the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung, Wathaurong, Taungurong and Djadjawurung peoples. We acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. We offer our sincerest respects to Elders past, present and becoming, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across this magnificent land.

All images by Christo Crocker 2019.