BRIDIE LUNNEY & TORIE NIMMERVOLL

Propositions

Your perception of everyday urban architecture and approach to psychological states of being are transformed through the works of collaborating artists Bridie Lunney and Torie Nimmervoll.  These wonderful performance artists manage to manipulate the Gertrude’s very Contemporary exhibition space into an ever-evolving performance space, that really must be seen to be appreciated. Albeit their works also lend themselves to a myriad of complex concepts that make for challenging conversations and considered articles. Indeed, these talented women aim to investigate and confront audiences with ideas stemming from fundamental questions revolving around ones relevance and significance within space and time.

 Bridie and Torie came to develop their show Propositions after having already established themselves as artists independently. Bridie has recently been involved in several exhibits including, The Ceiling Has Lost Solidity at Manysquaremetres gallery, 2014, which each dealt with recurring concepts surrounding space as an entity and object in and of itself. Torie also recently completed a solo series Objecthood that was installed in Seventh Gallery, Kings ARI and West Space throughout  2009-2010. Objecthood also played with similar concepts of objects within space. Their convergence of interest in materializing issues surrounding time, space and architecture through the means of art resulted in an inevitable collaboration, entitled Propositions.  

The combination of Bridie’s refined ability to capture the essence of stillness in the form of mobile sculptures, and Tories unmatched capacity to remain entranced within performances for up to seven hours results in a psychologically challenging and totally engaging display. Solidarity is no longer a concept within the walls of the gallery as the collaborating artists develop and build upon the frame of the gallery space over the course of six installation performances, during which Torie Nimmervoll becomes one with the art objects they have specifically created. The objective of the performances for these artists is to confront the audience with philosophical concepts of the relationship between the human body and objects within space, whereby the boundaries between inanimate and animate become blurred.

Each unique installation is conceptually developed by both Bridie and Torie, and then structurally created and tailored by Bridie Lunney for Torie Nimmervoll who over the course of a month “will be variously suspended above head height, cast up against the window and balanced on props”, literally representing internal psychological spaces. In using her own body as a prop “rather than a body in performance”, Torie attempts to break down the boarders put up by our urban environment, in turn essentially rebelling against the constraints of the human form in conjunction with urbanisation. Moreover, through her public performances she encourages audiences to do the same, or at least to recognises these social barriers. Bridie Lunney concisely states that “In Propositions, it is not the gestures of resistance, but the gestures of stillness that are the starting point for my sculptural forms. 

 The actual construction of the pieces reiterates the founding idea that the human form is not juxtaposed or disjointed from the structure of space or architecture, but rather embedded within its very walls, this is well reflected in the human form being the foundation of all of Bridie’s structures.

The notion that Torie will be suspended in a harnesses as though caught mid fall inherently inspires curiosity and wonder. One can imagine the thought most viewers will probably spend a lot of time focusing on is, how a human can remain focused for such long periods of time in seemingly such unnatural positions! Indeed, deliberation through presenting surreal circumstances is an intentional consequence, as this reflexive independent contemplation demarcates the same disconnection from the motions of quotidian life that Torie and Bridie intentionally demonstrate, thus posturing their work as one of immediate cause and effect. 

Dates: 8 February - 2 March 2013