MILK Viewing Room — Jerico Contemporary

VIEWING ROOM

MILK

Jerico Contemporary is delighted to present ‘MILK’ a group exhibition featuring the work of Alicia Bilyara Bennett, Anna Harrison, Elle Wickens, Poppy Kural and Jedda-Daisy Culley. The exhibition opened on Friday 12th of August and continues until Saturday 3rd of September 2022. 'MILK' brings together varied interpretations and experiences surrounding the idea of motherhood, birth and the transformation of both body and mind after becoming a mother. The exhibition brings together a series of large-scale paintings, works on paper, weavings and sculptures made from breast milk.

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VIEW EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

‘Mother and Child’ is one in a series of large-scale dramatic drawing’s playing with expressive psychoactive-self-portraiture. Taken from personal experience, each mark, in its own capacity, tells a story of the inner tension and transformation of its maker — of my urge to hide but ultimate unwillingness to do so. My medium of ink on paper shares a long history with the ancient Chinese practice of calligraphy. Although this painting, the artists writing is wild with abandon, becoming as I go. Experimenting with the performative nature of drawing and unlearn instinctive behaviour patterns with rapid witch-like intuition. Remnants of my own presence — a footprint, a tear —immortalise a moment in time, this drawing revisits a recent life-threatening-event, responding rapidly. With no time to second guess, this creative process is one represented of the urgent clarity amidst chaos required to save a child’s life.

– Jedda-Daisy Culley

This work tells a simple story of a very complex time. For me, the early days of motherhood were characterised by contrast. Fear, exhaustion, claustrophobia and depletion lived in tandem with beauty, transcendence, intense tenderness and a ground-breaking new kind of love. Retrospectively I can clearly see what was occurring – a kind of mythological heroes journey in which a profound inner metamorphosis was taking place beneath the mundanity of daily existence. Feed, nappy, settle, do-my-head-in, rinse, repeat. Meanwhile my soul was being methodically eviscerated and reimagined while I sat on a breast pump staring numbly at my phone.
- Anna Harrison

Anna Harrison
*nights by a salt lamp*, 2022
True embossing on 100% FSC-certified cotton paper
Image Size: 32 x 45 cm
**$ 1,800.00**
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Alicia Bilyara Bennett
*Ngamaka Ngamu (mothers milk)*, 2022 (left) **SOLD** and *Ngamu (milk), 2022 (right)*
Acrylic on Canvas
168 x 183 cm each
**$ 4,800.00** each
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‘Ngamaka ngamu’ meaning mothers milk is a display of motherhood, the journey faced solo but surrounded by love and community. ‘Ngamu’ meaning milk, explores the way our bodies transform throughout motherhood and is a celebration of diversity through skin tone.
- Alicia Bilyara Bennett

Poppy Kural
Liquid Gold, 2022
Nettle yarn, brass wire and Spotted Gum frame
39 x 29 x 8.5 cm
**$ 1,600.00**
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Poppy Kural
*Milky Way #1*, 2022
Organic yarn, brass wire and Spotted Gum frame
39 x 29 x 8.5 cm
**SOLD**

Poppy Kural
*Milky Way #2*, 2022
Organic yarn, brass wire and Spotted Gum frame
39 x 29 x 8.5 cm
**$ 1,600.00**
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I have created three woven sculptures, using natural yarn and brass wire which have been constant materials throughout my practice for the last few years. I think they so clearly represent the “golden light” or for this exhibition, the “liquid gold” that is breast milk. No matter what is going on in my world I always try to look towards that golden light. The stillness and subtleness that surrounds us and our soul. These sculptures are that. There are moments in time of motherhood where we need to look towards that golden light. To get us through the bits of darkness that inevitably come with this magical time.
- Poppy Kural

The works I have created for ‘MILK’ aim to make visible the language of the body in childbirth. My work seeks to connect the audience to their own bodies.Through the direct use of breastmilk and water stains, I aim to spark in them a curiosity and mental discord about childbirth, motherhood and breastfeeding, and I hope to challenge any preconceptions they may hold about the birthing body.
- Elle Wickens

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