As Real As It Gets
Seventh Gallery, Naarm/Melbourne
2022
Alice Ramsden, Matilda Davis, Lou Hubbard, Tamara Marrington, Chris Madden, Spencer Lai, Reuben Daamen, Sam Nugent
Curated by Matt Siddall and Sam Nugent
In ‘As Real As It Gets’, the artists consider dreams, imagination and the subconscious to be important vehicles of creativity. They use world-building as a coping mechanism to liberate themselves from feelings of displacement and loss resulting from extended periods of isolation. These artworks are realisations of both external and internal thoughts and feelings each artist has experienced due to restrictions of work, movement, and socialising through living within the COVID-19 pandemic.
These fantastical environments, ranging from the romantic, to camp, to the grotesque, prompt the viewer to notice overlooked flora and fauna and discarded cultural signifiers, creating possibilities to subconsciously escape restrictions of socialisation and movement. The exhibition is a wormhole that imagines the collective works exhibited as a singular mind. A hospitable space is created for daydreamers to imagine alternate realities by gazing into detailed secondary worlds.
Documentation: Lucy Foster