Hello Dolly

Overview

What do fashion photography, Catholic iconography and dirty rock stars all have in common? Firstly, they’re all full of foxy ladies. But more specifically, they all serve as inspiration for Sydney-based artist and go-go dancer Bridie Connell. Drawing on personal and fictional narratives, visual metaphors and dark humour, Connell investigates an ongoing interest in representations of women and femininity in art and popular culture.

She’s also the brains behind Gaffa’s latest group exhibition Hello Dolly, for which she’s amassed a whole bunch of artists (both male and female) to contribute their own visual perspectives to her venture. Along with Connell’s own work Hello Dolly will involve performance artist Liam Benson’s exploration of how our cultural environment influences the conventions of gender roles, Stephen Giblett’s hyperreal oil paintings and Simon Lovelace’s sexy neo-pop art heroines. Along with other excellent local artists including hilarious duo The Motel Sisters, who are “hotter than Twitter and sweeter than a Wendy’s Sherbitt Whip”, they’ll all pay tribute to the personas we create, admire and desire through the use of fashion, costume, make-up and disguise.