Sharon Goodwin: The back of my head is none of my business
Sarah Scout Presents is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition in the gallery by Melbourne-based artist Sharon Goodwin.
Goodwin's practice over three decades has engaged the visual language, artefacts, mythology and stereotypes found in popular culture, illustration and art history. The back of my head is none of my business comprises thirty-six framed works on paper – constellations of images that include animals, both real and imagined, alongside mythic and heraldic objects and symbols.
Specific references and sources for these new works include 17th century etchings and manuscripts by artists such as Jean Appier and Matthäus Merian the Younger; laurel branches as memorialised by historians Pliny the Elder and Plutarch; the story of Saint Peter bound with double chains in King Herod's prison; the wonderful illustrated Historia Naturalis: De Avibus (Book of Birds) from 1657; Classical and mythological touchstones such as the golden apples of the Hesperides and the ancient quest for the Golden Fleece, among so many others.
The forms are rendered in Goodwin's unique and recognisable graphic style; individually, the works are both compelling and quirky in their composition while, as a body of work, they combine to formulate an other-worldly system of knowledges, propositions and celebration. This sense is heightened through their exhibition in the gallery on a vast field of colour (aptly named Alpha Centuri) which alludes to a metaphorical twilight sky, and brings Goodwin's singular iconography into sharp focus.
