Held on the 21st May 2024 to
19th Aug 2024
, Northern Tasmania
Inveresk Library
Summary:Works by Molly Turner and Benjamin Baker in response to the curatorial exploration of ‘ways of knowing’.
Sawtooth Gallery x University of Tasmania
This temporary exhibit is a collaboration between Sawtooth Gallery Launceston and the University of Tasmania’s Library and Cultural Collections as a means of artistic exploration and exchange. Artists are invited to respond to the curatorial exploration of ‘ways of knowing’. The invited artists are curated by Zara Sully.
The works will be on display from 21 May 2024 to 20 August 2024 in the Inveresk Library.
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).
