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How to Do Things with Words

Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley's Word Works

Rex Butler
Eyeline 91
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Janet Burchill, at first by herself and then in collaboration with Jennifer McCamley, initially came to attention making works of art involving words. For her Honours exhibition at the Sydney College of the Arts in 1983, she made Aporia, in which six canvases spell out the word ‘aporia’, followed by three monochromatic panels of red, yellow and blue. In 1984 for the exhibition Future Unperfect at Artspace in Sydney, she made Return, in which five canvases spell out the word ‘return’, but this time hung with three monochromatic panels of red, white and black. In 1985 for the artist group Various Artists Ltd, she made with McCamley Static – Design for Interiors, in which six canvases spell out the word ‘static’, accompanied by three Daniel Buren-like canvas strips hung above a doorway and a slide projector showing an image of a woman lying on a black-and-white striped couch. The same year for Australian Perspectaat the Art Gallery of New South Wales—and it is remarkable to realise how quickly the artists gained recognition for their work—Burchill made Equivalence, in which a single steel sheet spells out the word ‘equivalence’, along with three black plastic roses on canvases above, and a white-on-white portrait of Catherine Deneuve in the film Repulsion, a Malevich cross and a monochrome of International Klein Blue down the side.

Around this time too, Burchill and McCamley, made Sensorium(1985), composed of the word ‘sensorium’, three primary-coloured monochromes and a diagram from El Lissitsky, and Pulsion(1989), composed of the word ‘pulsion’, an image of a naked woman from Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Sensesand a can of petrol with... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley. Static-Design for Interiors 1, 1985

Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley. Static-Design for Interiors 1, 1985. Enamel and acrylic paint on 6 canvas panels, each 30x30cm,
acrylic paint on 3 canvas stripes, each 10x350cm. Continuous slide projection. First shown at Various Artists, Sussex Street, Sydney. Courtesy the artists.

Janet Burchill, Pulsion, 1989. Detail of petrol can.

Pulsion, 1989. Detail of petrol can. First shown at Yuill/Crowley, Sydney. Courtesy the artist.