Justene Williams: The Curtain Breathed Deeply

Overview

There is a white ute parked just inside Artspace. Branching off it are fluorescent light tubes and multiple video screens. The uppermost screen features a vagina outlined by shimmering black-and-white patterns. Another screen pops out of a deep freeze, revealing a nude man delicately combing a section of tinsel. He appears to be in the act of assembling the expansive exhibition that fills the entire Woolloomooloo gallery.

The Curtain Breathed Deeply is Justene Williams’ most ambitious venture to date. It is an elaborate ecosystem bursting with found objects and messy edges. Flanking the ute-and-genitals centrepiece, there are two tarpaulin curtains embellished with all kinds of materials. There’s some duct tape crosshatching, crinkly gold wrapping paper and plastic discs that look like road reflectors. Behind these mixed media murals are a series of video installations. Put simply, there's a large red room, a blue room and a few other nooks tucked in and around.

Williams’ practice is influenced by a range of modernist masters, particularly those heralding the big, bold and bright. For instance, the video installations in the red room are full of chaotic geometry, calling to mind the Cubist styles of Picasso and Leger. As the performers move against the colourful latticework backdrop, isolated sections of the action are magnified. There's a pre- and post-production grid that becomes tangled and confused.

Underneath all this optical intensity, the graceful movements of Williams’ male performers are quite mesmerising. As they are artificially sped up and slowed down, there is a conglomeration of different cultural dance styles. The fact that their costumes are tasselled with gold elephants and their hands and feet are stained red suggests a fascination with India; however, there is also a hint of homoeroticism. As the performers sparkle with sweat and glitter, there’s a fair share of camp dancing and bra-wearing.

On the blue side of the gallery, there’s a bit of shamanistic suburbia in the form of a backyard pool/wishing well. This is Williams’ way of injecting blue-collar Australian stereotypes with an aura of Voodooism. It’s quite amusing to see these banal objects dolled up as mystic shrines.

The video installations are in the same tenor, depicting a group of masked figures enacting a choreographed ritual. Although there's an obvious leaning towards Mexico's Day of the Dead festivities, with their cartoonish eyes and decorated sombreros, these lavish DIY costumes look like something you might see in The Mighty Boosh.

This is a sprawling kind of exhibition; however, one of the most self-contained sections consists of a makeshift garage. With clear corrugated roofing and a stack of old televisions, it looks like a sanctuary for the typical '90s teenager. Flickering colours are reminiscent of early MTV or Rocko’s Modern Life, making it a surprisingly nostalgic little alcove.

Williams' brand is a theatre of excess with a taste for the exotic. And The Curtain Breathed Deeply is an immersive sensory experience to say the least. Full of joyous and psychotic energies, it's like being inside the artist's head. It’s a fairly nonsensical universe. But it’s a fun one.