Lili Reynaud-Dewar, TEETH, GUMS, MACHINES, FUTURE, SOCIETY / Alicia Frankovich, Exoplanets
⬤ Lili Reynaud-Dewar, TEETH, GUMS, MACHINES, FUTURE, SOCIETY, 5 Oct - 11 Dec 2018 ⬤ Alicia Frankovich, Exoplanets, 5 Oct - 11 Dec 2018
The paired exhibitions currently on show at the Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) are linked by the figure of the prosthetically enhanced, composite or permeable body. Alicia Frankovich's Exoplanets, 2018, and Lili Reynaud-Dewar's Teeth Gums Machines Future Society, 2016-18, both explore territory that can be described as post-humanist feminism. It's an interesting and curatorially astute pairing, not only because of the similarities in the two artists' interests but also because of the apparent difference in the politics of the two bodies of work.
Frankovich's practice has developed around the intersection of sculpture and performance, exploring the latent energy in both bodies and things. In recent years, however, her work has taken a new direction. Her (Dome Perspex Light Sculpture) (Not Yet Titled), 2018, is a good example. A transparent perspex pod that looks like a futuristic baby incubator contains a gleaming pile of golden omega-3 capsules. Hit by a projected stream of light, the capsules throw kaleidoscopic patterns onto the opposite wall. In contrast to Frankovich's earlier work, the theatricality of this installation tends more towards the staged image than the performative body. The patterns of light refracted through the translucent omega-3 capsules create an image that is transcendently medical: it seems to display the health-giving contents of the capsules in microscopic detail. Omega-3 is crucial to our health, but because it is not produced within the human body it must be ingested. Frankovich's auratic image of this substance speaks to our bodies' reliance on externally sourced chemical compounds and micro-organisms.