Contemporary Australia: Women

129 Sally Smart Australia b.1960 Artists Dolls (various, details) 2011–12 Synthetic polymer paint and ink on canvas and fabric with wood, cardboard and various collage elements Installed dimensions variable Sally Smart’s art reflects the subversive nature of the Avant-garde in women’s art practice. Questions of gender and identity are key concerns in her work, and Smart seeks particular inspiration from, and engages with, early twentieth‑century innovative modernist women artists. The use of materials is central to the conceptual unfolding of her work. The process of cutting, pinning, staining and stitching all align with ‘women’s practices’; although the traditionally female materials are subverted by Smart to create her own unique compositions. Smart’s series of dolls, created for ‘Contemporary Australia: Women’, are rich with allusion, drawing inspiration from a number of historical art sources. The work is a series of ten puppet or doll-like assemblages, approximately 1.5 metres in length, which are suspended by rods from the ceiling — springs and joints are then used to create mobility. All the dolls have titles that reference avant‑garde artists, from Russian Constructivist Varvara Stepanova (1894–1958) to bauhaus choreographer Oskar Schlemmer (1888–1943). Performance and theatre are central to Smart’s art, with her works often expressing the theatricality of a stage set. The spirit of defiance is a definitive trait of the avant‑garde art movements of the early twentieth century, evidenced in the groundbreaking ballet Petrouchka , created in 1911 for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. 1 Petrouchka is the story of a Russian traditional puppet. Petrouchka, is made of straw and sawdust but comes to life, develops human emotions and is tormented by the all-powerful puppeteer. Petrouchka is killed by another puppet, but his ghost rises in angry defiance and appears as a dancing shadow, terrifying the puppeteer. The final scene of the ballet has the audience wondering who is real, and who is not. Smart’s puppet assemblages capture something of the mood of this inventive production. The daring costumes of the ballet — textured velvet, cotton and silks decorated with geometric and zigzag patterning — are reflected in Smart’s reworking of these bold materials in her marionettes. Smart challenges the idea of the wholeness and unity of the human subject by cobbling together diverse materials to create her figures, which cast their own ghostly shadows on gallery walls. Smart’s doll-like puppets are dramatically lit, casting shadows on walls, floor and ceiling that evoke shadow puppetry, an ancient form of storytelling in many cultures. The disturbing nature of the figures as they hang suspended recalls Freud’s concept of the uncanny — a word Freud coined to describe distinctive aesthetic experiences associated with certain feelings of mild distress, anxiety or disquiet. Here, the shadowy doubling of limbs and forms, totemic in appearance, has the presence of corpses on a gibbet. While previously viewed as entertainment for children and fairground audiences, puppets emerged as an integral component of the modernist vision, becoming a metaphor for human helplessness in the face of powerful forces. 2 This comparison is still relevant today, particularly with the resurgence in performance art and interest in physical theatre and the body. Perceptions of performing are also now being challenged by new technologies and virtual reality, which raises new metaphors of technological alienation. More direct precursors for Smart’s series are the dada and constructivist dolls made by early modernist avant-garde women artists. Ever since art historian Linda Nochlin asked, in 1971, her now famous question, ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’ 2 , there has been a reassessment of the place of women in art history. Dada was one cultural movement of the early twentieth century that laid the groundwork for many subsequent art forms: surrealist and abstract art, sound poetry and performance art. Dada was long regarded as a male preserve, but more recent research has challenged that assumption by exploring the creative contribution made by women, such as Sophie Taeuber (1889–1943) and Hannah Höch (1889–1978). Both these women have strongly influenced Smart’s oeuvre, with two of the works in the ‘Artists dolls’ series named for these artists: Artists Dolls #10 Costume Assemblage (SOPHIE) 2011–12 and Artists Dolls #2 Puppen Punk Face(HANNAH) 2011–12. Sally Smart Sally Smart A cast of dancers