Sarah Contos’s ‘Eye Lash Horizon’ reimagines humanity
Image: Photo credit: Anna Kucera
By JAMES BALE
Renowned artist and Perth native Sarah Contos is set to lead her first institutional survey at UNSW Galleries with Eye Lash Horizon, an exhibition that pays tribute to the varying media and materials that have been pivotal in shaping Contos’s craft over the past two decades.
The exhibition is being presented as a Kaleidoscopic view of the human condition through the four worlds of ‘brain’, ‘womb’, ‘belly’ and ‘soul’. These four installations explore the ideas of human proximity and limits and pays homage to multiple aspects of popular culture such as German expressionist filmmaking and famous directors such as Stanley Kubrick and Phillip Kaufman.
Contos believes this exhibition has been one of the toughest things she has had to do as an artist, saying to City Hub: “The scale, methodologies employed, and diverse materials speak directly to my love of artmaking.
“From casting aluminum forms in the backyard to tufting wool on giant frames in my studio garage, the deliberate mark of my hands is present in each sculpture, textile, and object,” she explains. “Having been a student at UNSW many moons ago, I find it incredible to come full circle with this exhibition at UNSW Galleries.”
Contos uses multiple artistic mediums throughout Eye Lash Horizon, incorporating video animations, printed collages, repurposed furniture, textile forms and hand-forged sculptures.
One of the works in the ‘Brain’ installment is a collection of mannequin heads made of aluminum and polystyrene, which again draws on pop-culture by taking inspiration from 1927’s film Metropolis, a film which illustrates technology’s potential to both elevate and dehumanize.
In the ‘Belly’ installment, a series of large, illuminated cocoon sculptures that hang on the roof of the gallery, paying homage to the changing form, and the memories of the past while shedding for a prosperous future.
This survey will be curated by Karen Hall and is accompanied by an essay that Hall wrote called Close Your Eyes, Baby. “The title of my essay is a line from the 1986 Aliens film where the character Ripley tries to shield the child Newt from what appears to be an imminent death,” she says.
“Science fiction films are an ongoing influence for Sarah, and she is inspired by the aesthetics of imagined worlds to express fear of the unknown and unseen”.
Eye Lash Horizon is set to open at UNSW Galleries Friday 27th September.
Eye Lash Horizon
27 September – 24 November
UNSW Galleries
https://www.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/unsw-galleries/sarah-contos-eye-lash-horizon
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