Art Panel with Molly Turner and Benjamin Baker

Level 2, Room 216, Inveresk Library, 2Invermay Road , Invermay, TAS 7248

Join us for an art panel with Molly Turner and Benjamin Baker to hear them discuss their recent works.

Join artists Molly Turner and Benjamin Baker for an in-person discussion on their practice, and current works on display at the Inveresk Library. The artists will be in conversation with Zara Sully, Director of Sawtooth ARI and curator of this exhibit.

Molly Turner

Molly Turner - the good bad and ugly doll - Soft sculpture, dimensions vary

Artist Statement

Being an artist allows me to show an extension of myself that perhaps isn't "the vibe" or acceptable in public. It makes me feel a bit naughty.

Nobody wants to take you out for coffee to hear how many times you've sh*t the bed; they only want to hear how many times you've f****d on it.

Within this project I took the opportunity to have fun stitching and sharing some of my most bashful moments. As a person and an artist, will happily air my dirty laundry to you.

Artist Biography

Molly Turner is a multidisciplinary artist born on the North-west coast of lutruwita, who currently resides in nipaluna / Hobart. Her practice focuses on working with materials what she has available or can source second hand, humour, bogan culture and immortilazing the sentimentality of her weird past.

Benjamin Baker

Benjamin Baker - a weed by any other name  - Assemblage. Acrylic paintings on unstretched cotton canvas, thread, stone earthenware ceramic rings, paper, steel poles, oil pastel paper dandelions, and stoneware clay tablet

Artist Statement

a weed by any other name is a collection of objects and paintings situated around the subject matter of Dandelions. For me, a dandelion represents resilience in the face of capital progress. I relate it closely to my experiences of fringe dwelling as a queer person, as a person with a disability and as an artist in general. I see dandelions every day as I walk the streets, peruse my garden and look through my mountains of found imagery I use in the studio. They are this essential plant where all parts are useful, yet no parts are often made use of. By using these wonderful plants (frequently framed as weeds, excess, unnecessary) I can expand their meanings into my practice as symbols of resistance, nurture and the notorious 'other'. There is something so beautiful about a crack dweller, something that can thrive, grow, and then take on to the wind and start again. I hope to be more responsive to my surroundings like a dandelion.

Artist Biography

Benjamin Baker (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist and arts worker based in Naarm/Melbourne. Benjamin nurtures a sustainable practice that is informed by material investigations, bodily outcomes and emotional experiences. Through the expanded field of painting and sculptural installation they attempt to translate ephemeral self-reflections into imagery. Swaying and navigating between ecologies of tenderness, queer melancholy and stomach butterflies, Benjamin dances alongside imagined vibrant touches and strokes of anticipation.

Benjamin’s recent exhibitions include, Queer My Head, The DAX Centre, Melbourne (2023); Text Tile, Caves Gallery, Melbourne (2023); and, DAS BOOT: Artist Car Boot Fair, ACCA Forecourt, Melbourne (2023); Soft (Yours, Queerly), Sawtooth ARI, Launceston (2021); Bodies Apperceived, Gallery Boot (2020); and Coming Soon 2, Westspace, Melbourne (2018).