The Curtain Breathed Deeply at Monash University Museum of Art | MUMA from 7th February - 2nd April 2015

Opening function: Saturday 7 February 2014, 3-5pm. With opening remarks by Anne Loxley, C3West Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

The Curtain Breathed Deeply is an exhibition of a series of newly commissioned video installations by Sydney artist Justene Williams. In this rich environment of pattern, colour and texture, curtains and screens act as thresholds between the energy of one realm and another.

For Williams, the curtain and the exhibition pay tribute to her father, to his life and work, as well as the hospital curtain that marked the final stage of his life when he passed away from mesothelioma. The Curtain Breathed Deeply is poignant and celebratory, acknowledging the life of a loved one while also taking pleasure in the movement of living, breathing, sexual beings.

Williams draws from many sources, for instance her personal experience of dance classes and time spent in her father’s wrecking yard; early twentieth-century avante-garde art and theatre; and contemporary pop culture. Found objects evoke the Australian suburban vernacular: the garage, the inflatable pool and the barbeque are some of the objects transformed to create a series of interconnected environments that when brought together ‘breathe’ like a vast and mysterious body.

This exhibtion comes to MUMA from Artspace in Sydney. The Curtain Breathed Deeply has been developed through a Catalyst: Katherine Hannay Visual Arts Commission and will be accompanied by a major new monograph.

Please be aware that this exhibition contains nudity.

Address: Ground Floor, Building F, Monash University, Caulfield campus, 900 Dandenong Road, Caulfield East

Website: http://monash.edu/muma/

Opening Hours: Tuesday - Friday: 10am - 5pm; Saturday: 12 - 5pm