Di Ball, Bianca Beetson, Mikala Dwyer, Jeff Gibson, Eve Klein, Susan Gray, Richard Grayson, John Meade
Curator: David Broker
An interrogation of beauty in these postmodern times might be one of those ventures readily placed in the 'too hard' basket. On the part of Beauty 2000's curator, David Broker, it is certainly courage and conviction that seems to have driven him to excavate for this poisoned chalice. As cultural phenomenon, beauty has captivated us for centuries, perhaps becoming increasingly befuddling with the aesthetic and political fractures of our times. However, what emerges from this exhibition is not only an awareness of the ontological complexity of beauty but also a sense that certain epistemological obsessions with it verge on folly. As many of the works in Beauty 2000 seem to indicate, beauty is like fear. It makes good prey, and perhaps perversely, we derive some degree of pleasure in the taunting.
In Beauty 2000, Broker presented works by eight artists which address 'beauty in our times'. This exhibition was timed - with an apparent use-by date - indicating that ideas about and performances of beauty are in a constant state of flux, representing momentary aesthetic aspirations and respirations. The borders between the territories of popular culture and art are constantly contested and the critical distance upon which the 'aesthetic disposition' relies is under rapid fire. Subsequently, like beauty itself, this art is elusive. It does not elucidate what constitutes beauty nor does it represent beauty. Rather it prompts us to reconsider some rather invidious claims and assumptions about beauty, particularly in relation to the binary tyrannies of Western thought. Among the contestations are constructions of identity predicated on more specific articulations of and encounters with beauty as constructed through popular culture. Desire is interlaced with such conceptions and becomings of