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Kate Bernauer, still from The Adventures of Jose Pablo, 2006. DVD. Courtesy of the artist.


Kate Bernauer, still from Ball of Yarn, 2006. DVD. Courtesy of the artist.

 

Kate Bernauer

2 - 28 June 2009 in the Square² Gallery

The Adventures of José Pablo 2006
Ball of Yarn 2006
DVD
Duration: 1:24 and 1:36 mins, looped
Courtesy of the artist

Kate Bernauer’s work often features narratives inspired by ‘strange but true’ columns, myths or tall stories. Her use of theatrical lighting and props on location creates a stage where the contradictions and absurdities of small situations in human lives are played out. The magical realist potential of given objects or images is allowed to direct the action, which often becomes a pantomime of unruly and bizarre motion.

The Ball of Yarn and The Adventures of José Pablo extend on the artist’s photographic practice. In The Adventures of José Pablo (first shown at QUT Theatres, the Queensland Short Film Festival, Brisbane, Australia) a young man reading in an empty industrial space becomes literally consumed by the pages of his book. He is able to subdue and charm the disorderly papers by playing his accordion, until they – and he – disappear altogether. The Ball of Yarn depicts a girl launched into physical combat with her ball of wool as she attempts to knit. This time the placating instrument is a violin. Both situations call into being a form of logic remote from the everyday, invoking the rationality of the dream state, and a more lyrical account of reality.

Kate Bernauer (B Photo (Hons) Queensland College of Art, Griffith University) lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. Predominantly a photographic and video artist, she also works as a Cinematic Designer and Layout artist for the video games industry. Selected recent solo exhibitions include 'I’ll be Home in Time for Dinner’, Australian Centre for Photography, Sydney, Australia, 2009; ‘Closer’ Rawspace Galleries, Brisbane, Australia, 2008; ‘Long Way Home’, Queensland Centre for Photography Brisbane, Australia, 2007. In 2009 her work was included in the group show ‘Video Works’, Tarryn Teresa Gallery, LA, USA, and in 2008 ‘The Churchie National Emerging Art Exhibition’, Churchie, Brisbane, Australia. Recently she has been working on the soon to be released title Saboteur. See http://www.katebernauer.net