Subtext
uncanny | ʌnˈkani | strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way
Oxford English Dictionary
“The female is a subject not an object in this work.” — Julia Keenan
In Julia Keenan’s exhibition of new sculptural and photographic based works, objects and materials carry with them double and triple meanings. Inspired by psychoanalysis, Keenan explores social and cultural mores, which govern representations of the female body. Melding together the conscious and unconscious world, Keenan’s work is uncanny.
In this exhibition, the body is fragmented and stripped of identity; it is a site of perpetual trauma. Trauma is not necessarily the product of physical violence but more so of violations of the body which stem from the ever growing influence of consumer culture in the ‘real’ and virtual world. Body parts, such as teeth, hair, tongues, fingernails and eyelashes are often used by Keenan to transform and anthropomorphize objects of fashion and domesticity, making for beguiling imagery and objects that are both seductive and disconcerting. Keenan’s use of particular bodily parts and man-made materials makes for work loaded with psychosexual innuendo.
The vitrine plays an important role in Keenan’s work, both literally and symbolically. The works in this exhibition take account of the space they occupy. The glazed interior and exterior walls of the Foyer Gallery resemble a form of large-scale vitrine in which humans, rather than inanimate objects are contained. The sculptural work, Chandelier comprises an ornate brass light fitting which suspended from the ceiling rotates while encased in a perspex box. Ordinarily the decorative centrepiece of a domestic environment, here, the chandelier is dressed with fake eyelashes and fingernails and slowly turns as if locked in a never-ending act of display.
There is an inherent paradox in Keenan’s outlook, whereby the framing and containment of the body exists in a world in which we are freer, so we are told, to do (or consume) as we please, when we please. It is a world facilitated by the ‘freedoms’ of cyberspace. For Keenan, this social space is itself a form of vitrine, where the pathologies of instantaneity, spectacle and perpetuity conspire with performance, invention and revenge.
However visually alluring or unsettling the work appears, Keenan’s choice of materials (human teeth, pigs tongues, purses, shoes, faux leather, bric-a-brac) used in her altar-like constructions carry hidden significance. The idea of subtext is key to reading Keenan’s use of materials. Vermilion Hue makes reference to the naturally occurring red pigment, which imbued with associations of beauty, art and spirituality, also harbours a more sinister side, containing the highly toxic metal mercury. Vermilion is also derived from the word vermin. The title of the exhibition and a work in the show, Vermilion Hue, suggests something, which is at once visually appealing but also deceptive in terms of what it reveals and conceals. The reoccurring use of carpet underlay, in Keenan’s work, is perhaps the most explicit example of how form and content interact, denoting as it does amongst other things how sexual and other social taboos can, quite literally, be swept under the carpet.
Richard Hylton
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Julia Keenan
Vermillion Hue
1 September – 15 October 2015
University for the Creative Arts, Farnham