The Belinda Jackson exhibition of young artists
The purpose of the annual Primavera exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art is to promote the work of young emerging artists within the validating context of an established institution. Primavera, therefore, actively supports the burgeoning art of this country and the evolution of contemporary culture.
Primavera 1997 marked the first solo curatorial effort for (Sydney-based Aboriginal artist) Rea. She selected six artists from around Australia (Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne and Sydney), Justin Avery, Jessica Ball, Bianca Beetson, Clinton Nain, Sharyn Raggett and Troy Ruffels, on the basis that their individual artistic practices were compatible with a notion of 'liminality'.1
The artists were certainly at a liminal point in their professional development (as expected) and the concept of 'liminality' successfully conveyed Rea's desire to create an 'exhibition about artists who work in between spaces', (that is, by combining various artistic media and, hence, challenging traditional discourses of interpretation).2 Whether the theme of 'liminality' was an appropriate imposition, however, was doubtful. It appeared to be an unnecessary attempt to categorise a diverse survey show with an all-encompassing label.
Justin Avery's Cocoon (1997) consisted of thirteen body casts, each coated with aromatic beeswax and suspended just above the gallery floor by fish hooks and line. Their close, but not tight, arrangement had the structural appearance of honeycomb. Cocoon was suggestive of empty shells of once protective wombs or the physical remnants of a previous existence. It possessed a sense of discarded dormancy which was countered by its own subtle movement. Illuminated from below by bright electric globes, the body casts were caused to sway, ever so slightly, due to rising hot air. These vibrations were like a frustrated voice trying