Visual Art | Brian Rope
Punk,
Romantic | Sophie Dumaresq
CCAS Manuka | 6– 15 December 2024 (11am–5pm, Friday-Sunday)
Punk, Romantic is the debut solo exhibition by Sophie Dumaresq, a recent graduate of the ANU School of Art + Design (SoA+D). She was selected for the prestigious Hatched: National Graduate Show 2024 at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, is participating in Next Wave’s 2024/25 Kickstart residency program, and is the 2024 artist-in-residence at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, having received the 2023 CCAS ANU SoA+D Emerging Artists Support Scheme Mentorship and Exhibition Award.
I first became aware of Dumaresq in March 2020 when I saw her work The Hairy Panic, a significant part of a broader exhibition at the Nishi Gallery, for which she received an ACT Arts Award. Sadly, that exhibition was taken down early because of COVID-19. Her artworks in it featured tumbleweeds she hand-made from chemically processed and hand-dyed human hair and painted pink steel. One work was later a finalist in the Mullins Australian Conceptual Photography Prize, another a finalist in the Goulburn Art Prize.
Fast forward to 2024. At the beginning of this year View 2024, Photo Access’s annual showcase of emerging photo-media artists from the ACT and surrounding regions, included three Dumaresq artworks – a digital print & mixed media piece, a digital video and an installation comprising a digital video, an expanse of fluffy pink carpet, cow pillows and a beanbag.
Now, at the close of this year, Dumaresq has her debut solo show. Dumaresq has created a structure in which a divided cow’s skull with a jaw cast of recycled ocean plastics is connected mechanically to a unicycle generating chewing actions as she pedals it whilst attempting to stay balanced. She sees it as a robot which uses her brain as its microprocessor.
Dumaresq was mentored by performance artist Stelarc in 2023 as part of the Creative Australia and Creative New Zealand Digital Leadership fellowship. An essay by Stelarc accompanying the room sheet tells us The multimedia, interdisciplinary and performative projects of Sophie Dumaresq are about a personal sensibility that combines the human, the animal and the machinic in permutations and combinations that are uncanny and surreal. Simultaneously conceptually driven, embodied and performed, but also with an awareness of the potency of the documented image. Her projects and performances are heroic acts in that she is audacious and undaunted in realising her ideas. And in her ecological awareness and inclusion of the animal, there is a more astute understanding of the ecological systems of both the natural and the technological.
The structure, CowPunk, takes centre stage in the exhibition space, securely held in place. Visitors can examine it close up and explore the diverse elements from which it is constructed. Another exhibit is a looped GIF – if that meme term is unfamiliar you can read about it here. And on the walls of the gallery are remote shutter-controlled artist self-portraits, in which she is balancing on the seat. Sometimes a friend is standing alongside holding the robot.
The location for the images is a rock ledge adjacent to the ocean – chosen because it is a place of wonderful childhood memory, a place where her dad took her as a baby in his arms, and of which she has photos. The first attempt to create the images proved difficult because of the strength of the wind at the time, so Dumaresq and her friend returned very early the next morning and were rewarded with a beautiful sky featuring, again, pink.
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| The Punk Rock Idle, Attempt Two, Yuin Country, Australia, untitled #4, Punk Romantic, 2024 |
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| The Punk Rock Idle, Attempt Two, Yuin Country, Australia, untitled #2, Punk Romantic, 2024 Remote shutter-controlled artist self-portrait |
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| Behind-the-scenes self-portrait with Emma Rani Hodges, Punk, Romantic, 2024 |
I expect we will see more of CowPunk as the artist seeks to further realise what she wants to achieve using it.
