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Cleo Gardiner Artist

Cleo Gardiner ArtistCleo Gardiner ArtistCleo Gardiner Artist

Discover Cleo Gardiner Artist

philosophy

 My Honours dissertation and current Masters is concerned with processes involved in re-imagining identity/ies, whereby the possibilities for re-imagining ourselves are opened up and explored. Where experimenting with ways to re-imagine our identities can precipitate a process birthed in and from a rupture. This rupture is two-fold for a 

 My Honours dissertation and current Masters is concerned with processes involved in re-imagining identity/ies, whereby the possibilities for re-imagining ourselves are opened up and explored. Where experimenting with ways to re-imagine our identities can precipitate a process birthed in and from a rupture. This rupture is two-fold for a marginalised person. It involves a destabilising of subjected notions of class, gender and institutionalisation in relation to dominant culture; and simultaneously stems from a crisis of self. This process of rupturing enables a situation where a re-imagining can take place and strongly relates to what Deleuze and Guattari term becoming, an ever-evolving process of invention and re-invention.  This brings forth a new hope and a new territory or lens through which to view identity, where a person can play a leading role in the generation and production of a kind of future that is unlike the present.   Please see corresponding artwork Class-If-Y a felt concrete poem below.

 

working class poetry, love, lust, rage, desire, identity

oeuvre

 Cleo's work often includes text which illustrates how words can inspire, rupture and embrace ones self. She suggests, through text and icons, we see parts of ourselves mirrored as a jigsaw of positive and diverse referents. Ones, which observe and honour our varied differences. Through works like XX-Class/if/y she celebrates the joy of w

 Cleo's work often includes text which illustrates how words can inspire, rupture and embrace ones self. She suggests, through text and icons, we see parts of ourselves mirrored as a jigsaw of positive and diverse referents. Ones, which observe and honour our varied differences. Through works like XX-Class/if/y she celebrates the joy of words and how they mark, commemorate and even liberate us. Her collages of text, map  identity as both a cultural and collective memory; illustrating a personal journey, an unravelling or unbecoming to become. 

Photograph 'Smack' BDSM love play hair

about

about

  

Cleo Gardiner is a contemporary and conceptual Australian artist, based in Brisbane. Her work explores the complex and often, contradictory relationship/s we have with our identities.

Investigating and questioning the multiplicity of identities has remained a central concern in Gardiner’s practice. From earlier works which reference t

  

Cleo Gardiner is a contemporary and conceptual Australian artist, based in Brisbane. Her work explores the complex and often, contradictory relationship/s we have with our identities.

Investigating and questioning the multiplicity of identities has remained a central concern in Gardiner’s practice. From earlier works which reference the canon of portraiture and religion and explore issues relating to identity, icons, desire, class, sexuality, size positive representations of the body, gender & gender identities.
 


XX-Class-If-Y (felt 2 x 3 metres x 1 metre)

1/3

'Play, Smack and Honey' - (photographs with objects and hair 20x 20cm)

1/3

Kiss my FAT Ass

Kiss my FAT Ass - Digital Collage 75 x 55 cm 310 GSM

Notes Toward A Future Feminist Archive Group Show - Potts Point

Notes Toward A Future Feminist Archive - Group Show

Becoming - Unbecoming

Notes Toward A Future Feminist Archive  Affiliated Text

Photo credit Felicity Jenkins

Becoming - Unbecoming

'Harry' Screenprint (110 x 75cm with Neon)


Harry successfully lived his life as a man for 22 years in the early 1900’s before his arrest and the subsequent public disclosure of his sex assigned at birth in 1920.  Harry was vilified by the press and public, with newspapers dehumanizing Harry with headlines like “Man-Woman”, “Sex pervert”, “Despicable Human Monster”,“Rough Voiced”, “Fiendish”, “Aggressive”, “Evil Featured Person” - I created this artwork to highlight and counter the lack of justice Harry received.

'My Serial Killer for Yours' (TABLEAU PHOTOGRAPHS IN VARIOUS SIZES)

    Amore Diem Joint Show with Janet Parker Smith at MContemporary


      Class-If-Y II Class/if/y (Giclee print of original Department of Community Services file, paper and embroidery)

      'Becoming' Embroidery on text, psychiatric assessment
      'Becoming' Embroidery on text court matter
      
Giclee print of original Department of Community Services file, paper and embroidery.

      'Salvation' Digital Collages 110 x 75 cm with embroidery

      Patti Smith
      Gough Whitlam
      Frida Kahlo

      Instagram


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