Opening event
Saturday 2 May, 3 – 5pm
Free
Join us for the opening Natalya Hughes: The Interior and Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided–yet whole.
an we use the talking cure to solve society's 'problem' with women? The Interior invites audiences into an exaggerated consultation room, playfully furnished for psychoanalysis. Natalya Hughes's immersive installation—combining sculptural seating, richly patterned soft furnishings, and uncanny objets d'art, nestled around a hand-painted mural—generates a stimulating space to unpack our collective and unconscious biases.
Fragmented, divided—yet whole brings together recent works by Amanda Bennetts that use time as both material and metric for understanding the body. In Bennetts' practice, time is not linear but lived. It is stretched, slowed, ruptured, and suspended by the realities of living in a body in flux that refuses normative rhythms and constantly requires new forms of understanding.
The Interior will be opened by Robert Leonard, Director of the Institute of Modern Art (IMA), and the event will be preceded by Natalya Hughes and Amanda Bennetts in conversation with Megan Williams from UniSC Art Gallery from 2 – 3pm.
Natalya Hughes and Amanda Bennetts in conversation
Saturday 2 May, 2 – 3pm
Free
Join artists Natalya Hughes and Amanda Bennetts in conversation with Megan Williams from UniSC Art Gallery.
Natalya Hughes' practice is concerned with decorative and ornamental traditions and their associations with the feminine, the body and excess. Recent bodies of work investigate the relationship between Modernist painters and their anonymous women subjects.
Amanda Bennetts' practice is grounded in the lived experience of a body in flux, shaped by chronic illness and disability. Drawing on clinical and wellness aesthetics, she positions the body as a critical site of inquiry.
Both artists will speak about the research, ideas and development of the works in their respective exhibitions.
Stay on for the official opening of Natalya Hughes: The Interior and Amanda Bennetts: Fragmented, divided—yet whole from 3 - 5pm.
Images
Natalya Hughes, Studio Portrait, 2022. Photo: James Caswell.
Tufting workshop with Natalya Hughes
Saturday 6 June, 10am – 12pm
Free
In this workshop, participants will create their own textile work to take home using the punch needle tufting technique. Natalya will lead participants through some of the techniques and processes she has employed to create custom textile works in The Interior. Participants will design their own motif to tuft, drawing on their experiences in conversation with the artist.
Free, but places are limited, and booking is essential.
Image
Punch needle workshop with Natalya Hughes. Photos: Meg Keene.