Isabelle Mackay-Sim
Seeming
20 Sep - 1 Oct 2023
G2
Opening Night
Friday 22 Sep | 6 - 8pm
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Isabelle Mackay-Sim’s abstract, anthropomorphic sculptures recontextualise and celebrate aspects of the human form that are often rejected by mainstream culture.
Her practice centres around the use of the haptic and sensuous qualities of clay and glaze to render these abject forms seductive. The conversation between maker and material is pivotal to the work, as the inherent weight and malleability of clay contribute an uncontrived representation of flesh, and marks made by the artist’s own body build a subtle textured surface.
In Seeming, Mackay-Sim explores our changing perceptions of the body as it moves through private and public spaces. We present our bodies differently in different contexts, altering our social performances to seem one way or another, or ceasing performance altogether when we at last feel secure.
Through these works, Mackay-Sim expresses the challenge of navigating how our bodies are viewed and interpreted by ourselves and others. The title, Seeming, evokes our attempts to actively direct, or control, the way we are read by others when we leave our private spaces.
Mackay-Sim’s body forms are given context in the gallery space through the use of wall-hung tiled arches, and composed structures that reference the soft embrace of the home, or the hard scrutiny of the built environment.
The archways nod both to the security of the domestic space and to the grandiose framing of classical statuary, a stage for the performance of beauty and composure. Tiles are a ceramic backdrop to the mundane life of the body, prodded and squeezed in the bathroom mirror.
Through the playful arrangement of fleshy forms in ceramic environments, Mackay-Sim tells stories of the human body in moments of repose, self-scrutiny, abjection, and empowerment.
Artist Bio
Isabelle Mackay-Sim is a ceramic artist working on Ngunnawal Country in Canberra. Mackay-Sim’s practice centres the figure, exploring permutations of the body and its diverse relationships with the world at large.
Mackay-Sim has an experimental ceramic practice and is fascinated by the nuanced meanings that materials and processes bring to her work.
She has participated in numerous exhibitions and residencies in Australia and Internationally, receiving the Talente 2020 award and being featured in the Joya Barcelona art fair.
Contact
Phone : (03) 9482 3550
mail@redgallery.com.au
Address
157 St Georges Rd
Fitzroy North, Victoria, 3068
Map
How to get here
Tram: route 11
Stop 21 just north of Edinburgh Gardens
Melway ref: 30B12
Parking in nearby streets
Bus: 504 (Reid Street)
