MIA AND SKYE IN THE SLEEPOVER
13 September - 21 October 2018
Curated by Eliza Tiernan
Hannah Gartside
The single channel video Mia and Skye in the Sleepover is a documentary version of a collaborative performance work-in-progress which was presented at Metro Arts, Brisbane during Gartside’s solo exhibition Fantasies in May 2018.
A field of translucent sculptures made from feminine undergarments, 1970s synthetic fabrics and lace trims, Fantasies is about connection and dissolving, curiosity for new sensations and the strangeness of being in a body.
This video combines the work of ballet dancer Mia Heathcote, choreographer Joseph Stewart, violinist Skye Mc Nicol and cinematographer Charlie Hillhouse, with additional sound by Dylan Jeffreys and was situated around and within Gartside’s immersive sculpture, The Sleepover.
The large scale, and repetition of body forms in The Sleepover are used to undermine cultural notions of small, individual, domestic-scaled femaleness, and to create a gentle abstracted monster made up of many absent bodies. Through balletic and contemporary dance movements, the dancer interacts with the abstract sculpture, her movement driven on by the sounds of the violin. She dissolves the originally still columns made up of shredded petticoat slip skirts, pressing up against, caressing, and running through the tendrils and lace edges of the garments.
Hannah Gartside has a fabric-based practice with outcomes in sculpture, photography, video and site-specific installation.
Gartside collects and repurposes everyday materials and detritus such as blankets, nightgowns, gloves and cat hair. Drawing from dress-making, costume-making and patchwork-quilting processes her work speaks to personal experiences of intimacy, longing and bereavement. Her work explores feminism and material culture through disrupting codes of femininity, and presenting ways of experiencing the sensuality and multiplicity of the material world.
Hannah Gartside received a Bachelor of Fine Art (in Sculpture and Spatial Practice) from Victorian College of the Arts in 2016. Her graduate exhibition was awarded an NGV Women’s Association Prize. She has held solo exhibitions at George Paton Gallery (VIC) and Metro Arts Gallery (QLD), and has participated in group exhibitions at KINGS ARI, Craft Victoria, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Wangaratta Art Gallery, Town Hall Gallery, QUT Art Museum and McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park.
In 2017, Gartside undertook a two-month Varda Artist Residency in Sausalito, California, and was a finalist in Hatched (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art), Fresh (Craft Victoria) and the Fischer's Ghost Art Awards (Campbelltown Arts Centre).
Prior to her visual art training Gartside received a BFA in Fashion Design from Queensland University of Technology, and worked as costume maker for five years, mainly in classical ballet. Her work is held in the Wangaratta Art Gallery collection and in private collections across Australia.
IMAGE | Hannah Gartside, Mia and Skye in the Sleepover, 2018, Video still from single channel video with sound, 4 minutes 15 seconds, cinematography Charlie Hillhouse. Courtesy the artist.