Jemima Wyman

At the Fray

Commonwealth and Council

Los Angeles

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Mass mobilisation against political injustice has a long history, which has been documented as early as Ancient Rome. When humans grow tired of being oppressed and overlooked they join forces and rise. The world’s ‘leaders’ increasingly disproportionate use of power and violence as a method to control has resulted in mass collective dissatisfaction and a time of global protest.

Since 2008 Los Angeles-based, Australian artist Jemima Wyman has been collecting and archiving images of protests she finds on the internet. The artist stated in a recent interview that she began to pull these images, ‘in an effort to be active, embodied, and empathetic in the interface with the computer screen’.¹ Known for her work with colour, costume, pattern and camouflage, Wyman’s recent exhibition At the Fray (2018) extends her previous investigations into masked demonstrators, pattern and textiles, presenting works that explore the symbolism and collectivity of protest. Hosted by independent alternative gallery Commonwealth and Council, the exhibition draws you in with the bright colour and formal lines, and holds interest with the relationships that are formed between image, pattern and material. Displayed across two rooms of the three-room gallery, At the Fray adopts the images, symbols and materials of political protest to create a visual documentation of our times.

I entered the exhibition via the room to the left of the main gallery space, where a mixed media, predominantly two-dimensional work was installed. Deepsurface Fray Rage (Anti-Prisoner Release protest banner, Israel, August 13, 2013 (Hands), Protester at the RNC for good jobs, healthcare, affordable education, equality and peace, Florida, USA, August 27, 2012 (A’s), “We Will Not Go Back” protester, New York, USA, December 17, 2014 (Bullet holes), March

Deepsurface and Cautionary signs (Anonymous March, Los Angeles, USA, March 15, 2008 (Stars), March against Monsanto protesters, Florida, USA, October 12, 2013 (Tie-Dye), Budget-cut protester, London, March 26, 2011 (Cat), Anti-labor Law protester, Paris, France, June 14, 2016 (Stripes), Greenpeace activists against deforestation, Tartagal, Argentina, August 31, 2004 (Jaguar spots), Occupy Wall St protester, New York, USA, October 15, 2011 (Coin), 2018. Painted photographs, spray-painted tarp, various painted fabric. Approx. 317.5 x 640.7 x 2.5 cm. Courtesy the artist.