curator and writer
From the other side
Elyse Goldfinch and Jessica Clark
Clare Milledge, Cybele Cox, Heather B Swann, Jemima Lucas, Julia Robinson, Karla Dickens, Kellie Wells, Lonnie Hutchinson,
Louise Bourgeois, Maria Kozic, Marianna Simnett, Mia Boe, Minyoung Kim, Naomi Blacklock, Naomi Kantjuriny, Suzan Pitt,
Theron Debris, Tracey Moffatt, Zamara Zamara
Horror often speaks to the collective anxieties and fears of our times, from sexual liberation to new technologies, racial tension to gender subversion. This fear proliferates across shared cultural imaginaries to lay bare our innermost desires, tendencies for self-destruction and the conflicting impulses to confront and exorcise our darkest fantasies. Horror provides a language with which to be scared and to respond to challenges that might be beyond our control.
From the other side brings together nineteen Australian and international artists, integrating historical and contemporary works, alongside key new commissions that draw upon horror’s capacity to transgress and destabilise forms of power and subjugation. The exhibition summons the impulse for rage and revenge, while embracing feelings of vulnerability and unease. Rather than speculating on the field of horror as a whole, the exhibition embeds and casts a lens upon feminist, queer and non-binary subjectivities to consider the transgressive pleasures and liberations of horror, as makers, masters and consumers of the genre.
Centring the fear of the monstrous-feminine, the exhibition raises questions about the often-harmful representation of female monsters — the witch, the hag, the monstrous mother, the shapeshifter, the possessed woman — and how she has been reclaimed by female storytellers in recent years. The monstrous-feminine resists the prototypical role of women in horror, as either victims or final girls; instead she performs the dual roles of temptress and castrator — alluring yet repulsive, contaminating yet pure.
The exhibition crosses the artificial parameters of horror in the everyday, as something that exists as part of society but also from outside of it. Culminating in a potent synthesis of dread, camp, humour and catharsis, From the other side challenges the traditional narratives and assumed boundaries of the body, gender, the self and the ‘other’.
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MEDIA
Feature, Sydney Morning Herald
Cover story, Art Guide
https://artguide.com.au/its-a-horror-show/
Preview, Art Review
https://artreview.com/the-top-10-exhibitions-to-see-in-december-2023/
Interview, Film Ink
https://www.filmink.com.au/from-the-other-side-melbournes-horror-power-grab/
Review, Arts Hub
Art News Aotearoa
https://artnews.co.nz/acca-drawn-to-the-place/
CREDITS
From the other side, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and Neon Parc, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Julia Robinson, The Pledge 2021-22; Burrow Mump 2022, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Marianna Simnett, The Udder 2014, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and Société, Berlin. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Tracey Moffatt, A Haunting 2021–2023, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Heather B Swann, Human Frailty 2023, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne & Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Cybele Cox, The Hag 2023, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and Yavuz Gallery, Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Zamara Zamara, Gestures 2019-23, Clamber 2023, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Louise Bourgeois, Spider 1995; Arched Figure 1993; Untitled (Safety Pins) 1991, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. © The Easton Foundation. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Karla Dickens, Warrior Woman XIV; Warrior Woman VI; Warrior Woman IV 2017, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne & Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Mia Boe, A Desolate Primitive Place 2023, I Suspect 2023, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Heather B. Swann, Never let me go 2023 (detail), installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist and STATION, Melbourne & Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis
Jemima Lucas, Stifled forces - Constantly Swelling. Will the Levee break? 2023, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Courtesy the artist. Photograph: Andrew Curtis