My Doubtful Mind

Artists aim to screw with your head

Natasha Johns-Messenger & Leslie Eastman, Dominic Redfern David Rosetzky, Dan Spielman, Soo-Joo Yoo
Curated by: Jan Duffy & Alex Taylor

18 April - 25 May 2008
Opening 6-8pm Thursday 17 April

For the new exhibition My Doubtful Mind at Linden - Centre for Contemporary Arts, artists were asked to make exhibition visitors as uncomfortable as possible.

Featuring new, site-specific artworks by artists from around Australia this exhibition plays with viewer perceptions and attempts to induce an inexplicable and irrational sense of anxiety.

Curated by Jan Duffy and Alex Taylor, the show originated in a discussion about unlikely phobias. In the course of researching the exhibition, they ended up learning of people who were afraid of stickers (especially those half peeled off), pillowcases, buttons (the black and white ones are the worst) and cardboard. "Phobias provided rich inspiration for the exhibition, as they can at once be tragic and very comic, and many artists must face irrational fears to make their work" said the curators.

For the exhibition, video artist Dominic Redfern has revealed his phobia on bananas. "My work is often about revealing embarrassing truths" says Redfern.

Another contributing artist is acclaimed actor, poet Dan Spielman (Sydney Theatre Company's Actor's Company, feature film Tom White), whose large scale blueprint drawings exploring mortality will be offset by an opening night spoken word performance by award-winning playwright Daniel Keene.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue featuring new fiction on themes of psychosis, anxiety and obsession by Chris Eipper, Leah Kaminsky and Christos Tsiolkas.

For interviews, images or further information please contact Jan Duffy 03 9209 6794 or info@lindenarts.org

Having fun with phobias

Join Anthropologist and writer Dr Chris Eipper, Hypnotist Daryl Wilkinson, GP and writer Dr Leah Kaminsky and artists Dominic Redfern and David Rosetzky for an insight into phobias and those of us who have them.

3pm Sunday 11 May 2008

The works in My Doubtful Mind testify to the creative potential of this phenomenon: the spectacle of its razor sharp fears, its comedy as much as its tragedy.

Otherwise 'rational' people can fall apart at the sight of stickers (especially those half peeled off), pillowcases, buttons (particularly the black and white ones), cardboard and, yes, bananas.

It is hard not to find pleasure in such unlikely pain.

Yet for all the curious humour of such fears, they are very real for those whose lives they occupy. Phobias are inescapable, unrelenting, and require constant vigilance. They can be debilitating ... but sometimes you can have fun with phobias.

ADMISSION FREE
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL
Feel free to email or mail us your phobia for potential discussion by the panel.

 

 

 


image: Dominic Redfern


image: Dominic Redfern


image: Leslie Eastman


image: David Rosetzky


image: Soo-Joo Yoo