ANIMA RISING
JAMES GUPPY ‘FROM THOSE DEEP DARK SPACES WITHIN... WHERE TALES BEGIN, I OFFER THESE.’ EMERGING FROM DARKNESS WERE THE VISCERAL SCENES OF MYTHOLOGY, INTIMACY AND MAYHEM COMPOSED BY ARTIST JAMES GUPPY IN HIS MESMERIZING SHOW, ‘ANIMA RISING’. GUPPY’S PAINTINGS WERE QUIETLY PROVOCATIVE. BASE, DARK AND FANTASTICAL, THEY EXPLORE THE UNDERBELLY OF HUMANITY THROUGH THE SUPPLEMENTARY REALM OF MYTHOLOGY. THE FIGURES IN THE WORKS HAVE BEEN SUMMONED FROM THE ARTIST’S SUBCONSCIOUS AND CHILDHOOD MEMORIES TO THROW LIGHT ON THE COLD DARKNESS OF RATIONALITY. GUPPY HAS ALWAYS FELT AT HOME IN THE WORLD OF FAIRYTALES AND MYTHS, WHEREIN HE FINDS A POETRY AND A PASSION THAT PROSAIC HISTORY COULD NOT GIVE. HIS USE OF SCALE AND FIGURATION INVITE US TO TAP INTO LIFE’S SUB-STRATA: PART MEMORY, PART DREAM, PART PORTENT. AMONG THE MYTHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS WERE ROBUST, AGED WOMEN. IN MOST WORKS, THEIR SAGGING FLESH WAS BOUND BY ROPES AND ENCRUSTED IN A THIN SHELL OF PLASTER. THEIR HAIR WAS LONG AND GREY, THEIR BREASTS PENDULOUS AND THEIR FACES DEFIANT. IN SOME WORKS, PARTICULARLY ONE IN WHICH A NAKED FIGURE CONTORTS IN MID AIR, THE SUBJECTS COULD HAVE EASILY BEEN MISTAKEN FOR MEN. THESE WOMEN WERE NOT BEAUTIFUL. IN FACT, THEY WERE IN MANY WAYS SEXUALLY REPULSIVE, AS CONFIRMED BY VIEWERS’ APPROACH-AVOIDANCE OF THE WORKS. BUT THEY WERE POWERFUL, AND I HAD A REAL SENSE THAT THESE WOMEN COULD BE DEPENDED ON FOR GUIDANCE AND PROTECTION. THESE WERE NOT THE PREDICTABLE SEDUCTRESSES BUT RATHER THOSE TYPES THAT SOCIETY TRADITIONALLY FEARED AND MARGINALISED: THE WITCH, THE CRONE AND THE FURIES. THEY WERE THE STRONG, EXTRAORDINARY WOMEN WHO OFFER THE POSSIBILITIES OF OTHER LIVES. GUPPY’S PAINTINGS ARE A REFRESHING REMINDER OF THE CHOICES SOME ELDERLY WOMEN ARE MAKING TO SUBSTITUTE BOTOX FOR SELF-ESTEEM, REFUSING TO SUBMIT TO SOCIAL PRESSURES OF ANTI-AGING AND APPEARANCE-ORIENTED PRAISE. FOR MANY WOMEN, RELINQUISHING THESE PRESSURES EQUATES TO NEWFOUND FREEDOM AND SELF-EMPOWERMENT. THERE ARE ACTUALLY CONTEMPORARY ‘CRONING CEREMONIES’, WHEREIN IN POST-MENOPAUSAL WOMEN CONGREGATE TO HONOUR THEIR ACCRUED MATURITY. IN EARLY CULTURES AND IN WICCA AND PAGAN RELIGIONS, THE FEMALE ELDER WAS CONSIDERED A WISE WOMAN. SHE WAS THE HEALER THE TEACHER, THE IMPARTER OF KNOWLEDGE. THROUGH THESE CEREMONIES WOMEN ARE RECLAIMING THE NAME OF THE CRONE (ALSO DEROGATIVELY TERMED ‘OLD HAG’) IN A POSITIVE WAY. THE CRONE FIGURE WAS FEATURED IN NEARLY ALL OF GUPPY’S PAINTINGS. IN ‘AN EMBRACE OF SWALLOWS’, A NUDE RECLINING WOMAN IN THE BALLPARK OF SIXTY, CARESSES THE HEAD OF A NAKED MAN. LYING STOMACH DOWN ON DARK EARTH, THE MAN LOOKS UP TO THE ELDERLY WOMAN, CHILDISHLY, AS IF SEARCHING FOR MATERNAL COMFORT. SWALLOWS ENCIRCLE THE WOMAN’S HEAD, WHICH IS ADORNED WITH BARK AND REEDS AND ILLUMINATED BENEATH A SPOTLIGHT OF COOL, WHITE LIGHT. HER HANDS LOOK MAN-LIKE, AS DO HER MUSCULAR ARMS, ESPECIALLY JUXTAPOSED WITH THE MEEKNESS OF THE MAN’S POSE, HIS HANDS LIKE LITTLE HELPLESS PAWS BENEATH HER GAZE. WRITING ABOUT THIS WORK DOES NOT DO IT JUSTICE. ITS ENORMOUS SCALE, THE HUGE EXPANSE OF DARKNESS THAT ENVELOPS THE FIGURES, AND THE UNUSUAL CONTRAST OF MUTED, EARTHY HUES WITH SHOCKINGLY VIBRANT COLOUR, REALLY SHOULD BE SEEN IN THE FLESH. GLISTENING FEATHERS, BOTANICAL GARLANDS AND MOTTLED, HEAVING, PURPLISH-RED FLESH PULSATED FROM OMINOUS BLACK BACKGROUNDS. THE LIFE-SIZE FIGURES WERE RENDERED HEAVY AND SCULPTURAL, EMBODYING IN THEIR FORM A WEIGHTINESS ATTRIBUTABLE TO HUMANITY ITSELF. ANIMALS WERE ALSO INTERWOVEN IN THIS DEPICTION OF HUMANITY, IN TOTAL SYMBIOSIS WITH THEIR HUMAN COUNTERPARTS. GUPPY WRITES: ‘I WASN'T INTERESTED IN DOMESTICATED CREATURES BUT IN THE WAY THEIR UNTAMED FOREBEARS MOVE WITHIN OUR PSYCHE. ANIMALS WEAVE WITHIN ALL OUR OLD STORIES, EXPLAINING OUR COMPLEX HUMANITY TO US.’ AN ECHO OF HIS FORMER SHOW, ‘FUR, FEATHER, SCALE’, THE PAINTINGS BURST WITH ANIMAL LIFE. IN ‘WING STUDY’, THE BODY OF A GOOSE HAS BEEN CROPPED SO AS TO SHOWCASE ITS SCINTILLATING ELECTRIC BLUE WING. BUT OTHER PAINTINGS WERE PARTICULARLY DISTURBING. IN ‘DEATH OF A MAIDEN’, A STANDING WOMAN WAS BOUND FROM KNEES TO STERNUM WITH ROPE. HER WHOLE BODY WAS A SILVERY-BLUE, AND TIED TO EACH HAND WAS A BUNDLE OF DEAD REEDS. HER WRITHING BODY WAS PROPPED UP BY A FIGURE STANDING BEHIND HER, WHICH YOU DON’T NOTICE AT FIRST. DESPITE IT APPEARING HUMAN, IT HAD THREE CANINE HEADS, WHICH ALL STARED DIRECTLY AT THE VIEWER. WHAT MADE THE WORK EVEN MORE UNNERVING WAS THE WOMAN’S FACE – WITH HEAD TILTED, SHE WAS SMIRKING, HER EYES FIXATED ON YOU, SEEMINGLY ENJOYING THE DRAMATIC IMPACT OF HER OWN DEATH. IN ALL OF HIS PAINTINGS, THE ARTIST WANTS TO ROUSE US, AS HE REVEALS: ‘I FIND OUR DAY-TO-DAY REALITY UNTRUSTWORTHY. IT IS A BUSY ANAESTHETIC WE USE TO DISTRACT OURSELVES FROM ANXIETIES ABOUT DEATH, LONELINESS AND OUR MANY INADEQUACIES.’ HIS OBSESSION WITH MYTHOLOGY MAKES SENSE – OTHERWORLDLINESS PROVIDES A VIGILANT ANTIDOTE TO BOREDOM AND ACCEPTANCE OF THE RULES. DREAMLIKE AND MENACING, GUPPY’S WORKS PRODUCED AN UNSETTLING ALCHEMY, CHALLENGING US TO RE-EXAMINE SEDENTARY COMFORT ZONES AND ASSUMPTIONS. DESPITE THE SHOW’S MALEVOLENCE, WHEREIN BEAUTY AND LIFE HAVE BEEN PERMEATED WITH ANTAGONISM AND DEATH, THE WORKS WERE UPLIFTING AND COMPELLING. THE IMAGES FELT BOTH FAMILIAR AND STRANGE, AND AMIDST THE ALLUSIVE WORLD OF MYTHOLOGY EVERYDAY LIFE COULD BE DETECTED. AS MUCH FOR THEIR ADEPT TECHNICAL EXECUTION, AS FOR THEIR FASCINATING IMAGERY, THESE EXQUISITELY DARK PAINTINGS DEMAND TO BE SEEN. HARRIET LEVENSTON 2012 JAMES GUPPY’S WORKS FROM BOTH ‘ANIMA RISING’ AND ‘ANIMAL KINGDOM’ ARE VIEWABLE AT BRENDA MAY GALLERY, 2 DANKS STREET, WATERLOO, NSW, 2017.
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