WRITING

Stephen Jones describes Cognitive Dissidents as an exhibition that “looks at the range and possibilities that video opened up during its first two decades in Australia.” Jones knows, and is a part of, this history.

A self-styled “new woman” of the Gilded Age positions herself in front of the camera. Sitting down, yet leaning forward, her pose is at once reminiscent of Rodin’s brooding thinker c1881 and rich with the suggestion of contained forward motion, as though she is poised to spring into action, to make concrete the plans she is formulating as she takes another drag on her cigarette and brings a stein of beer to her lips.

Dressed in warm, layered textures of leather and fur, a striking young woman poses for her portrait. Around her neck, a brilliant chequered scarf in hues of orange, with browns and greys, mimics the delicate tangerine of her lips and the crowning persimmon of her hat.

My research highlights women artists, from Australia's Women's Art Movement (WAM), to political poster collectives, and from cyber feminism to the recuperation of women's needlework/craftivism.

Sean Crookes’ lolly-coloured paintings conjure my childhood. They whisk me back to the sun-soaked floor of my bedroom, immersed in the colours and stories of illustrated children’s books.