Bliss considers how artists create an ideal reality – often in the form of constructed worlds that transcend our daily experience, or by considering the beauty found in familiar places or things.
Featured artwork: Helen Smith, Alighiero e Boetti from Wikipedia, United Nations, 2013, oil on canvas, 150 x 216 cm. Copyright courtesy of the artist.
Bliss is an exhibition in two parts focusing on new painting, photography and objects in the Maller Gallery by artists Consuelo Cavaniglia, Helen Smith and Miriam Stannage, and new video art in the adjacent PRO/JECT space by Jacqueline Ball, Julie Dowling, Pilar Mata Dupont and Joshua Webb, all responding to the theme of 'bliss'.
Artists offer imaginative responses to the everyday, reconfiguring reality in a way that can bring new insight and meaning. Artists also focus on the central meaning of 'bliss', exploring states of ecstasy, joy and peace, while others play with, ironize or critique such a concept.
Although the exhibition considers notions of contemporary beauty and the feelings elicited by a harmonious state, these may be complicated by political or social commentary.
The Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, based at the University of Western Australia invites various schools and faculties to partner with on exhibitions and develop innovative academic and public programs. The Campus Partner for Bliss is the Westerly Centre, English and Cultural Studies, School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts, UWA.