Leo Fitzmaurice / Adam Latham / Giuseppe Mistretta Heather & Ivan Morison / Alison O'Daniel / Dallas Seitz 24 Nov - 16 Dec 2007 Private View Friday 23 Nov 6-9pm
'Her sweat smelled as fresh as the sea breeze, the tallow of her hair as sweet as nut oil, her genitals were as fragrant as the bouquet of water lilies, her skin as apricot blossoms... and the harmony of all these components yielded a perfume so rich, so balanced, so magical, that every perfume that Grenouille had smelled until now, every edifice of odours that he had so playfully created within himself, seemed at once to be utterly meaningless. A hundred thousand odours seemed worthless in the presence of this scent. This one scent was the higher principle, the pattern by which others must be ordered. It was pure beauty.' Patrick Suskind 'Perfume'
Golden Fluffer is a study of beauty and the forms it adopts in contemporary art, exploring how it becomes skewed and contorted as it is infused with other topics. Referencing science fiction, consumerism, colonialism and feminism, the artists in the show take very different approaches to their practices but are linked by an air of romanticism. Ultimately Golden Fluffer highlights the obscure forms beauty can take, articulating its constant presence and its reliance on the eye of the beholder.
Heather and Ivan Morison search for beauty in the great outdoors and record their findings much like an archaeologist would, giving their work a false history and the impression that it should be viewed in a museum rather than a gallery.
Using found and altered objects Dallas Seitz and Leo Fitzmaurice re-contextualize the banal and everyday, changing our ways of seeing the familiar by altering or coupling objects with others.
Interacting with people and localities Alison O'Daniel and Giuseppe Mistretta take a performative approach to their practices, whether deconstructing the male psyche or creating ephemeral artifices, both artists participate in yet are detached from the final piece, allowing the scenario to unravel by its own means.
Adam Latham mixes images of Afro Caribbean men and women with food and other obscure objects that satirise the notion of the civilised white man and the simple native.
There is a special 'Beauty' issue of Garageland magazine to coincide with Golden Fluffer.
