Spirit & Muscle 2006 Auckland

This video was curated by Associate Professor David Thomas whose curatorial premise explored the monochrome in art "as a device to manifest an awareness of colour, light, movement and time AMID THE WORLD in order to help us see our experiencing of our world." This curatorial topic is explored in Spirit & Muscle through the deployment of humourous costumes, physical gestures, timing, staging and colour. 'Spirit & Muscle' is a performative video work that recalls a range of cultural interests, including sport, modern abstraction, dance and cartoons. The work indirectly refers to early Cubist experiments by Picasso, Bauhaus dance performances, and the performing body in early video art. By literally inserting the female body into painted geometric forms, Spirit & Muscle light-heartedly deconstructs the phallocentric male canon in painting and art history, as well as cultural ideals. `Spirit & Muscle' was originally commissioned in 2006 by Juliana Engberg for the exhibition `New `06', ACCA, Melbourne. It was exhibited at Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (2010); Square2 gallery, Wellington, New Zealand (2010); and First Draft Gallery, Sydney (2010). This exhibition included internationally renowned artists such as Joachim Bandau (GER), Lisa Benson (NZ), Christoph Dahlhausen (GER), Matthew Delegate (USA), Noel Ivanoff (NZ), William Mackrell (UK), Simon Morris (NZ), David Sequeira (AUS) and David Thomas (AUS). The exhibition was reviewed by John Hurrel on eye contact site (see: http://eyecontactsite.com/2010/09/ten-artists-look-at-monochromes-now). This work was purchased by the Chartwell Trust as a result of this curated exhibition.