Once More With Feeling

“. . . smothering the Other.”

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Perhaps the myth of woman will some day be extinguished; the more women assert themselves as human beings, the more the marvellous quality of the Other will die out in them.
– Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1949, p.161

The notion of a myth has always surrounded women – we’re described as mysterious, complex, and baffling to the male mind because our desires are not clear. Simone de Beauvoir breaks this notion by merely pointing out that men believe their perspective is the absolute truth – and no other experiences exist beyond this. Anything else simply becomes the Other. The concept of the Other has permeated art and culture for as long as collective history can remember.

Once More With Feeling at Ngununggula highlights the female experience through four female artists: Karen Black, Michelle Ussher, Georgia Spain, and Cybele Cox.

Each artist brings a new perspective on the feminine, on internal expression and the visual manifestation of these ideas. Director and Curator Megan Monte notes that each artist was chosen due to the care attached to their work and the very strong level of feeling that is evident in their practices.

Each space itself feels expansive yet intimate, drawing you in – tempting you and inciting desire to sit with each artist and work just that little more. These four spaces feel like expressions of different feelings.

The first room is playful; Usshers’ body-like musical instruments fill the room with colour and joy. The audio of Afterburner, 2022, is a symphony of flutes, whistles, and other wind instruments harmonising, which surrounds the room, cushioning your curiosity for the sculptures. All the while the viewer is trying to decipher what body parts these whistles most resemble – like figuring out the shapes of clouds. There are whistles that look like male extremities (Knob, 2022), boobied vessels (Crusty Tits, 2022), and other cheekily ambiguous shapes.

While this first feeling of joyful curiosity lulls the audience into a false sense of security, walking into the next space hits like a ton of bricks. Cox’s visceral The Hag, 2023, draws you in with almost a sense of revulsion. Her fleshy body is exposed, on her knees yet embodying power, strength and nourishment. She is the feminine mystique, pendulous breasts indicating nourishment and care yet she props herself up on muscular and veiny; she is the myth of woman. Spain’s abstract paintings contribute to the unsettling feeling provoked by The Hag – they’re a flurry of gestures, fierce and potent brushstrokes speaking to the physicality of the expression of femininity and emotion. You’re grounded in the feeling of being a woman; it’s powerful, bodily, and overwhelming.

Ussher and Black’s works in the next two spaces create a sense of reprieve, a gentle inquisition into the body. Ussher’s shapes require close inspection, inviting a certain sense of fluidity to shapes and emotions and the state of flux that femininity is constantly in. Her works are paired with Black’s which find the viewer tilting their head to follow the gesture of paint (like in Song Without Words, 2023), following a path and wondering what the right way up is. And, perhaps, as the works are multi-directional, we sit with the fact that femininity and the body can be read, perceived, and experienced from a multitude of angles.

Once More With Feeling invites the viewer to see these inquiries of different perspectives exploring internal expressions of femininity. The title embodies the core essence of the show – it is emotional, it is feminine, it speaks to a gesture, an action, it’s theatrical and it is reminiscent of ritual. It’s the visual manifestation of how these women feel and how they want to be seen. In doing so, these artists assert themselves as human beings, thus smothering the Other.

Althea Kuzman is an emerging curator and writer.

Ngununggula
Until 13 August 2023
New South Wales

Images courtesy the artists and Ngununggula, New South Wales