White Gilt 2.0

Nathan Beard

Gallery 2
Opening 04.03.20 6-8pm
Artist Talks 26.03.20 6-7pm

White Gilt 2.0 is an exhibition by Nathan Beard which unpacks the cultural associations and idiosyncrasies of various hand gestures in traditional Thai culture, filtering them through a unique set of cultural anxieties that influence Beard’s approach to his Thai-Australian heritage.


The exhibition comprises of an installation of photographs and sculptures that take the symbolism and associations of the wai as a source of inspiration. The wai is a prayer-like gesture where your hands are clasped in front of you, and as a customary greeting in Thailand has roots dating back to the 12th Century as a method of indicating that you weren’t armed. Complicating this body of work is a tangle of personal associations between the artist and the wai - namely a sense of cultural inauthenticity which has been harboured through its ritualised or reluctant performance in social and familial contexts. Inextricably tied to this exhibition is an attempt by the artist to negotiate and destabilise the perspective of their own whiteness within their autobiographically charged practice.

Given the historically hybrid and shifting nature of an ‘authentic’ Thai culture, Beard’s work seeks creative potential in attempting to define an understanding of what ‘Thainess’ entails, asking what it means to inherit a nuanced relationship to a culture which you are also inherently at a distance from. White Gilt 2.0 engages the complexities of cultural performance through a range of visually extravagant influences. These include images interpreting the symbolism of extended hand positions in traditional Thai dance, found family photos, and the gestures of Thai artefacts encountered in museum archives.

Images

• Floral Arrangement, 2019, Archival inkjet print on Canson Baryta, Swarovski Elements, gold leaf, Fenty Beauty Diamond Bomb, glitter, mounting tape, 100 x 75 x 4cm, Photo by Chris Kershaw Photography

• Floral Extension 1 (2019) Archival inkjet print on Canson Baryta. 50 x 75 cm 



• Floral Extension 3 (2019) Archival inkjet print on Canson Baryta. 50 x 75 cm

• Haltribe Sawatdee Thailand, 2018, Archival inkjet print on Canson Rag Photographique 310gsm, Swarovski Elements, printed acrylic, 52.8 x 72.8 x 4cm, Photo by Bo Wong.

• White Gilt installation detail at Cool Change Contemporary, 2019, Vinyl dimensions 150 x 200cm, Photograph 50 x 75cm.