Feline Good, HBU?
A new commission from The Art Gallery of Western Australia. This was one of three key works that relaunched the gallery after significant renovations and was part of the group exhibition The View From Here in November 2021.
Below is an introduction to the work by curator of Australian Art, Robert Cook.
Booth’s shifting installation brings to light relationships between the cultural and the physical. As his cats sleep, prowl and peer from surprising locations, they function as guides who make us gently aware of how we orient our bodies and minds in relation to artworks and formal public spaces like galleries. At times, they might suggest that the angle we see a painting or sculpture from reveals or shuts down an understanding; at other times, they demonstrate that art is displayed according to conventions like a “standard” hanging height that doesn’t offer optimal access to many people; further, given that they read and speak cat, they felines bring to light the fact that many of us are put off by how words, like these, are used to describe art works. In addition to tackling the overt and subtle ways cultural institutions “police” what they show and who engages, however, Booth’s finely spray-painted forms decked out in hand-crafted street wear are examples of the liberating pleasure we might allow ourselves in unapologetically coming at the art world and the world entire, from our own, uniquely dazzling vantage points.
Powder coated aluminium, fleece, silk, gold appliqué, ribbons, zippers, cotton ribbing, sewing and steel.
Variable
07 Nov 2021 - 14 Feb 2022
The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Western Australia