In association with Sydney WorldPride, Campbelltown Arts Centre presents Embracing Shadows, a survey exhibition by Lismore-based Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens.
Karla Dickens, Bound, 2015, canvas straightjackets with mixed media, polyptych – six pieces, dimensions variable. Photograph: Document Photography. Courtesy the artist and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
With a career spanning over 30 years, Embracing Shadows unites several key works of Dickens’ oeuvre that have never been seen together – Hot Thing, 1995; Sheila’s Downunder, 2002; Black Madonna, 2009; Workhorse, 2015; and Bound, 2016; as well as select works from the recent Dickensian Circus and Country Show series, 2020–21.
The exhibition also premieres Disastrous, a series created following the record-breaking floods that devastated Dickens’ home region of the Northern Rivers, New South Wales, in early 2022.
Installation view, Women’s Business, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney. Photograph: Document Photograph. Courtesy the artist and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
Dickens sources a range of found materials that continue themes of female identity and racial injustice – enduringly explored in the artist’s reflections on Australian culture. From Australian circus shows, side shows, and tent-boxing troupes to heartbreaking renditions of woman’s experiences, including themes of sexuality, birth, death, abuse, rape and racism.
Each work carries meaning, echoing the objects’ former lives as a reminder of real experiences; vintage postcards with racist caricatures or embroidered straight jackets. They serve as stark renditions, of the unescapable memories that face all Australians today.
Karla Dickens, A Bell, A Crow and Empty Buckets, 2021, mixed media, dimensions variable. Photograph: Document Photography. Courtesy the artist and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney
Knife dodging acts, gun shooting cowboys and bareback riders
fires rage with spectacular damage
evidence of a nation with holes in buckets
“There’s a gaping hole in this bucket, dear Liza,
how on earth can you fix it dear Henry, dear Henry?”
The clowns enter and the show goes on . . .
– Karla Dickens, 2020
Campbelltown Arts Centre
3 January to 12 March 2023
Sydney
