WHAT

The moon has always held a symbolic place in social, literary and visual discourse, and the title of the exhibition, ‘Lunarian’, refers to imagery of moons and ‘mooning’ throughout the show in both its visual as well as emotional contexts. A group show featuring the works of four artists, there is a wistful longing that is prevalent in all the works, which depict complicated relationships with memory, nostalgia and desire. ‘Lunarian’ as a non-binary term also refers to the experience of inhabiting gender within several of the works. 

WHY

The visual identity of the moon and its associations uncover the thoughts, emotions and ideas present in all of us. We love Baxter’s ‘Housecoat VI’, which was the inspired by the memory of her grandmother as well as the generic American housewife of the 1950s. Baxter also takes objects conventionally-considered masculine (in this case, guns) and renders them in soft textile materials that are feminine, changing how they are perceived. On the other hand, Lau’s performance piece, which intentionally removes gender from the equation, is both entertaining and thought-provoking.