Rose Finn-Kelcey

Suit of Lights

★★★★☆

On until 12 April 2025

The challenge which the late Finn-Kelcey’s work posed to sex and gender roles in the 1970s and 80s seems quaint today. The brand of feminism archived in her studio self-portraits as a bull matador and a casino croupier has since both proclaimed total victory and continues to make a muted demand for parity. The exhibition’s sensitive display in local-art-centre retro exposes that project’s breakdown.

But making it ‘live’ again, as Finn-Kelcey’s performances once may have done is a different challenge. Snapshots and scripts of her 1976 durational gallery lock-in with a pair of magpies are simply no match for Beuys’ time with the coyote. That the art historian at whom this display is aimed cannot agree is the movement’s tragedy.


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Means of Reproduction at Emalin ★★☆☆☆

Means of Reproduction

★★☆☆☆

Is consumption is the greatest form of anticapitalism?

Cynthia Hawkins: Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D: Chapter 4 at Hollybush Gardens

Cynthia Hawkins

Maps Necessary for a Walk in 4D: Chapter 4

★★★☆☆

Hawkins’s paint reveals that her studio was no crime scene.

Hannah Black: HUSH MR GIANT at Arcadia Missa ★☆☆☆☆

Hannah Black

HUSH MR GIANT

★☆☆☆☆

What’s wrong with rights makes no right with painting.

A light here required a shadow at Maximillian William ★★★☆☆

Grant Falardeau, Rimantė Mikulovičiūtė, Benjamin Sasserson, Bu Shi, Dylan Williams

A light here required a shadow

★★★☆☆

Catch the wrong end of the spectrum and forever remain obscured.

Nikita Gale, Blur Ballad at Emalin ★★☆☆☆

Nikita Gale

Blur Ballad

★★☆☆☆

Even though the show brings together a few unusual tricks, they are disjointed and leave little for the eye to linger on.

Claire Fontaine: Show Less at Mimosa House ★★☆☆☆

Claire Fontaine

Show Less

★★☆☆☆

Repeat these mantras enough, and the lie becomes art.

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