Standing in front of Tarryn Gill’s soft sculptures from her Guardian series is an oddly comforting and strangely disquieting experience. From far away the individual hand-sewn foam and fabric sculptures look like a collection of glimmering suns floating in space. But on closer inspection the suns morph into faces, each with their own pair of shining eyes and an open mouth exposing neat little rows of teeth. The eyes are playful but gleam viciously when the light catches them; the mouths are halfway between a smile and a grimace.
Tarryn Gill, Dearly Beloved (work in progress), 2017, mixed media – inc. foam, sequinned fabric, thread, gemstones, Fimo, 30 x 26 x 31cm. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Melbourne
Gill’s upcoming solo show ‘Dearly Beloved’ at Hugo Michell Gallery will see the space filled with new works that form part of this ongoing series. As Gill states, ‘I’ve been approaching each of the sculptures as either a self-portrait or a portrait of my immediate family – my mother, father or sister.’ Suspended together from the ceiling, each individual portrait becomes part of a larger installation: ‘a family tree imagined as a constellation.’
The artist’s interdisciplinary practice has always been grounded in the theatrical and the Guardian series references the drama of the stage – there’s a gesture towards the illusion and play of masks and puppetry, the kitschiness of lustrously beaded costuming. Whilst initially working in video, performance and photography, Gill has recently moved to a more studio-based practice with a focus on the material. Her sculptures are delicate configurations that revel in the tactility of sequins tethered together by thread.
Tarryn Gill, Dearly Beloved (work in progress), 2017, mixed media (inc. foam, fabric, thread, sequins, Fimo, 29 x 25x 30cm. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Melbourne
But whilst there is humour and impishness at work in ‘Dearly Beloved’, Gill is also referencing her continuing preoccupation with symbolic objects and relics, with the faith and assurance embedded within them. After seeing a collection of the sixth century Japanese Haniwa at the Museum of Tokyo and undertaking a residency at The Freud Museum in London, Gill has become increasingly fascinated with the rituals associated with burying the dead. As a group of terracotta ornaments arranged around a burial site, Haniwa were thought to drive away evil and protect their ‘host’, and Gill’s familial guardians similarly work to create a protective closed circle.
Tarryn Gill, Dearly Beloved (work in progress), 2017, mixed media (inc. foam, fabric, thread, mirror), 24 x 24 x 27cm. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Melbourne
The poet Mary Ruefle confesses in ‘My Private Property’ (2016) that ‘my innermost fantasy is to own twelve beloved heads nestled in an egg carton, to comfort me in moments of dearth in exchange for my infinite love.’ The image of these beloved shrunken heads neatly contained in an egg carton has a domestic sweetness that’s laced with horror, and so too do Gill’s plushy sculptures. The softness of the material, the urge to gently cradle one in your hands, jars against the feeling that this cast of grinning faces has escaped the realm of the unconscious and marauded into the real world. They become part god, part seer and part haunting spirit, but still, there’s a sinister side lurking underneath all the gold sequins: it is never quite clear whether as a visitor into their domain your presence will invite their protection, or whether you are the very threat that such totems are intended to ward away.
Naomi Riddle is a Sydney-based writer and artist.
Hugo Michell Gallery
23 November to 13 December, 2017
South Australia
