Djaala/Torveeda/Khilii 7 ["A Poison Tree"] & Hélyos 6 ["A Poison Tree"]

by Tommy Mayberry

Djaala/Torveeda/Khilii 7 ["A Poison Tree"], 2010
Conceptual Artist/Model: Tommy Mayberry
Photographic Artist: Tina Weltz, MPA, LPPO
Hair and Make-up Artist: Jessica Barber

Calla Studio

Digital Image

 

Hélyos 6 ["A Poison Tree"], 2010
Conceptual Artist/Model: Tommy Mayberry
Photographic Artist: Tina Weltz, MPA, LPPO
Hair and Make-up Artist: Jessica Barber

Calla Studio

Digital Image

Artist Statement:

To borrow Richard Dyer’s words, I work in the “nexus of authenticity.” I combine concepts of narcissism and celebrity culture as I seek [artistically] to sell myself (in an exploration of the philosophy of conceit and artificiality) as a pseudo-celebrity. Primarily housed out of Calla Studio (www.callastudio.ca), I use myself as the model and work with a team of aesthetic artists (Photographic and Hair and Make-up) to construct the performances and images. My work follows in the vein of Canadian conceptual artists such as David Buchan and General Idea, but it is, at its centre, a hard-on fusion of William Blake and Lady Gaga.

Bio:

As a writer, I am interested in the crossbreeding of creative prose and academic scholarship; as an artist, I am interested in the hybridized space of reality and imagination. I have a Joint Honours BA in English Literature and Fine Arts: Studio Specialization from the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), and I am currently a Graduate student at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) working on my MA in English and Cultural Studies involving a hybrid thesis project (a merging of academic scholarship, creative writing, and studio photography) on William Blake under the supervision of Canadian poet and scholar Dr. Jeffery Donaldson.

A Special Variety of Soft-Skinned Dangerous Game

 

Artist Statement: "A Special Variety of Soft-Skinned Dangerous Game” is a series of photographs and video that has developed from an ongoing investigation into camouflage, performativity and the grotesque. My particular interest in camouflage is where art, fashion and warfare overlap, its formal properties and social function. This work is visually aggressive, humorous and sexual. It utilizes visual tactics of camouflage and disguise to rewrite the skins surface in order to exaggerate the process of identification through the psychology of vision. The “Gagaesque” protagonist looks out from a body that desires the viewer’s gaze, from a complicated ever changing, non-classical body that is in the process of understanding its own parameters. The two-in-one body that is represented mimics one of the fundamental tendencies of grotesque imagery, that is it exceeds its own limits. She goes further than her own meatiness; she gives birth to herself over and over again!  

Artist Bio: Jemima Wyman is a contemporary artist who lives and works between Brisbane and Los Angeles.

Wyman's art practice incorporates various mediums, including installation, video, performance, photography, and painting. Her most recent artworks utilize these mediums to specifically focus on visual-based resistance strategies employed within contemporary 'irregular military,' in an aim to explore the formal and psychological potentiality of camouflage in reference to collective identity.

In 2007, Wyman graduated with an MFA with an MFA from California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles, made possible with the support of a Anne and Gordon Samstag Scholarship.

Jemima is represented by Milani Gallery and has exhibited throughout Australia and internationally. Past exhibitions were held at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Melbourne), Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), Plimsoll Gallery (Hobart), Westbeth Gallery Kozuka (Japan), 40000 (Chicago), and Steve Turner Contemporary Gallery (Los Angeles). Her work was exhibited in 17th Biennial of Sydney - The Beauty of Distance: Songs of Survival in a Precarious Age. Jemima recently completed a residency at The Elam School of Fine Arts in Auckland.

Two Portraits by Kimiko Yoshida

Kimiko Yoshida, Painting (Balthazar Castiglione by Raphael). Self-portrait, 2010  COURTESY PACO RABANNE

Kimiko Yoshida, Painting (Queen Marie-Antoinette in a Court Dress by Elisabeth Vigée Le Bun). Self-portrait, 2010 

COURTESY PACO RABANNE

Artist Bio: Kimiko Yoshida studied photography in Japan and in France, where she has lived and worked since 1995.