Declaration of Love

Jodie Whalen

Opening 06.04.16 6-8pm
Artist Talks 28.04.16 6-7pm

Declaration Of Love is the final part to the body of work that began with Between Husband and Wife, Enduring Parallels, The Lock Up Newcastle, NSW 2014 and This Love is Huge, Campbelltown Arts Centre, NSW presented late 2015 Both these exhibitions saw Whalen and her husband as duel performers, in ritualistic performances exploring the idea of romantic love and endless devotion once a domestic relationship has been established.

Fitting within my performance practice Between Husband and Wife existed for the live audience only. Any documentation was created to go into my own archive, a common outcome of documentation in my performance work history. This Love Is Huge saw a turning point in this approach. This work was a one-time only performance, a declaration of love to my husband that celebrates our romantic history of longing, lust, hate, sadness, frustration and togetherness. It is a collective of emotions shared through a series of cover songs. Each song reveals a significant occasion in my life with my husband, marking the turn of a chapter. Unlike most of my previous performance works, documentation was recorded of this performance in a private viewing, so it could live on, as its own body of new video work titled Declaration Of Love. This new solo exhibition will present five videos for five songs, exhibited as a loop of love song declarations, continuing and finalizing the language and reference points in mass popular Western culture that the original performance took inspiration from.