PREVIOUS GROUP EXHIBITION:
 ‘INTIMACY’

Jerico Contemporary was pleased to present our first group exhibition Intimacy, that explored the layered notion of intimacy in isolation. For the first time in our gallery’s history we opened up submissions from beyond our artist stable, leading to 24 talented Australian and International artists to take part. The exhibition opened at 10am on Thursday 23rd July and continued through to Saturday 15th August, and was also available to view via our Online Viewing Room.

Intimacy considers the intricacies of human bonds and our entangled, intimate relations with beings and through objects. Consisting of 24 artworks by 24 different artists both represented and outside of the Gallery, the multidisciplinary exhibition features works that respond to a curatorial brief outlined by Gallery Director Jerico Tracy, which included a quote by Cuban-born American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres — whose work explored themes of the public and private life, formation and decay. Together, the artworks exhibited traverse emotions of love and loss, companionship and loneliness, and echo the fragility of intimacy. 

During his life, Felix Gonzalez-Torres created art that engaged with conceptualisations of intimacy and the lines between public and private life. His participatory installations defied the art world’s otherworldly preciousness, he rejected perpetuity in favour of impermanence and the ephemeral. Through simple interactive acts he invited his audience to actively engage with the known and the unknown, giving way to deeply meaningful and reflective experiences. 

“Don’t be afraid of the clocks, they are our time, time has been generous to us. We imprinted time with the sweet taste of victory. We conquered fate by meeting a certain TIME in a certain space. We are a product of the time, therefore we give credit where it is due: time. We are synchronised, now and forever. I love you.” 

– FELIX GONZALEZ-TORRES

Recent circumstances have seen us live in segregation from the outside world and enter into a similar interplay with the known and unknown explored by Gonzalez-Torres. In isolation, our relationship with time grows timeless, becoming more abstract with each passing day. Quiet moments are met with feelings of uncertainty and anxiety, as well as possibility. Our private and public lives overlap simultaneously. On one hand, we have never been more connected — a world absent of the physical is one strongly invested in the digital, online borders are traversed with ease. On the other, we have never been so isolated — an omnipresent distance between us pervades our interactions, movements, the restriction of our hands and the shuffling of our feet as we keep 1.5 metres apart. 

These contrasting factors have witnessed us become more aware of ourselves, and people and objects in our physical space — or perhaps lack thereof. Herein lies the essence of the works exhibited in ‘Intimacy’. Distant lovers are reduced to objects left behind, like two asthma puffers interlinked on a table in Liss Finney’s Bated Breath (Callum / Chun Hao), 2020. Focus turns to repetitive acts, manifesting in unexpected spaces within our homes and at our dining tables as painted by Amanda Shadforth A Setting For One, 2020. Wandering lines across our bodies are observed in solitude and moments of repose depicted by Caitlin Robson Closer, 2020. Landscapes once travelled are re-lived through our minds' eyes, photographs of them become transportive portals to elsewhere like Damian Dillon’s Mainer, 2020. Introspective yet revealing, these artworks work together to tell their varied stories as well as build a potent narrative that echoes the fragility of intimacy itself.

EXHIBITION WALK-THROUGH:

WORKS AVAILABLE: