Projections #12: From Walter B to Kim K – Sara Cwynar x Vanessa Berry
Still from Rose gold (2017), image courtesy Sara Cwynar
Held on 24 June 2023 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales as part of our Projections series, Projections #12 delved into the dreamworlds of commodities through a feminist lens.
The program drew together films by Canadian artist Sara Cwynar with a newly commissioned performance by writer Vanessa Berry. The afternoon explored the shapeshifting allure, circulation and afterlives of a range of consumer objects, including rose gold iPhones, red matte lipstick, mustard melamine and pink velvet.
About the artists
Sara Cwynar is interested in the way that images accumulate, endure, and change in value over time. Her conceptual photographs and films involve constant archiving and re-presentation of collected visual materials, layering diverse imagery with references to art theory. The works intricately recall advertisements, retail catalogues and old art history textbooks. Her visual assemblages meditate on how vernacular images shape collective world views, and how those ideals can change through time and contextual manipulation. Cwynar has exhibited at international museums including the Remai Modern, Saskatoon (2021); The Guggenheim Museum, New York (2021); LACMA, Los Angeles (2020); Museum of Modern Art (2019); the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2019); Milwaukee Art Museum (2019); Oakville Galleries (2018); Minneapolis Institute of Art (2018); Museum für Moderne Kunst (2017); the Fondazione Prada (2016); and MoMA PS1 (2015), among others.
Vanessa Berry is a writer who lives and works on Gadigal land. Her work examining memory, urban environments and material objects has been published in the essay collections Gentle and fierce (2021) and Mirror Sydney (2017), as well as in her autobiographical zine series I am a Camera. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Sydney.