Solo Arts Practice > Embodying Entanglement

Installation documentation of 'Soucouyant' (viewer listening to audio)
Photographic documentation of audio installation, carpet made out of curry powder, chilli powder, and flour, orange armchair, side table full of eggshells, headphones
2019
Soucouyant
Audio Installation, carpet made out of curry powder, chilli powder, and flour, orange armchair, side table full of eggshells, headphones
4 min 20 secs
2019
Bite Your Tongue
Live performance, curry powder, flour, eggshells with personal journal entries written on them, 5 pomegranates
35 mins
2019
Bite Your Tongue
Live performance, curry powder, flour, eggshells with personal journal entries written on them, 5 pomegranates
35 mins
2019
Bite Your Tongue
Live performance, curry powder, flour, eggshells with personal journal entries written on them, 5 pomegranates
35 mins
2020
Cartography
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, and curry powder
15 mins
2019
Cartography
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, and curry powder
15 mins
2019
Cartography
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, and curry powder
15 mins
2019
Cartography
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, and curry powder
15 mins
2019
Cartography
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, and curry powder
15 mins
2019
Purge
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, curry powder, and vocal lament
15 mins
2019
Purge
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, curry powder, and vocal lament
15 mins
2019
Purge
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, curry powder, and vocal lament
2019
Purge
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, curry powder, and vocal lament
15 mins
2019
Purge
Live performance, flour, chilli powder, curry powder, and vocal lament
15 mins
2019
Installation documentation of 'Churile' and 'Push|Pull' in Gallery One
Photographic documentation of exhibition, looping video on monitor (hair and saliva), handmade diary (thread, hair, eggshells, pomegranate, curry, flour, chilli, thread, blood, saliva)
2019
Churile
Video, hair and saliva, sound composition by Thembi Soddell using sounds from Alice Hui-Sheng Chang (voice) and Jim Denley (flute)
3 mins 49 secs
2020
Installation documentation of Push|Pull
Book, bound by Ort Bindery, pleather, leather, thread, hair, eggshells, pomegranate juice, blood, curry powder, chilli powder
16 cm L by 11 cm W
2019
Installation documentation of 'Where're you from?' and 'Reburying My Navel String' in Gallery Two
Photographic documentation of exhibition, two looping videos on monitors, left monitor: curry, flour, saliva, right monitor: cane sugar, Twinings English Breakfast tea, sweat, my parents' hands
2019
Where're you from?
Video, flour, curry powder, and saliva
7 mins 19 secs
2016
Reburying My Navel String
Video, cane sugar, Twinings English breakfast tea, Mom's fine china, sweat
3 mins 39 secs
2015
Installation view of 'Hollow' and 'My Nipples Aren't Pink'
Photographic documentation of exhibition, looping video on monitor (eggshells and saliva), series of three flip books ('flesh toned' nipple stamps orbiting the page)
2019
Hollow
Video, eggshells and saliva
24 mins and 21 secs
2016
Installation documentation of My Nipples Aren't Pink in Gallery Two
Flip book series, bound by Ort Bindery, paper, tape, Winsor and Newton 'flesh toned' gouache nipple prints
15 cm W by 10.5 cm L
2019

Embodying Entanglement is a solo exhibition at Margaret Lawrence Gallery showcasing works from Vanessa Godden’s practice-led PhD project. The artworks in this exhibition depict how material engagements with the body narrate personal histories of sexual assault and racism. It presents embodied trauma as processual, wherein videos, handmade books, and live performances depict various organic materials—such as curry, flour, chilli, pomegranate, eggshells, and hair—cyclically filtered through the body. From table manners gone awry to items evocative of childhood nostalgia (a flip book and private diary) the performative artworks in Embodying Entanglement allude to the deeply personal ways in which Godden’s trauma is embodied.

Over the course of the exhibition, I performed three key artworks, 'Bite Your Tongue', 'Cartography', and 'Purge'. 'Bite Your Tongue' was performed of opening night of the exhibition, 'Cartography' was performed the second day of the exhibition, and 'Purge' was performed on the third. The material detritus was left in the gallery space for the remainder of the exhibition to serve as sensory hauntings.

This exhibition comprises part of the Victorian College of the Arts School of Art PhD Program. The thesis that accompanies this artwork can be found here: Embodying Entanglement