Chronic irritations (Collective edging)
(2022)
- Medium
- oil, synthetic polymer paint and beeswax on canvas on plywood
- Measurements
- (a-b) 218.6 × 305.6 cm (overall)
- Place/s of Execution
- Brooklyn, New York, New York, United States
- Inscription
- (a) inscribed (diagonally) in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.r.: Ilana Savdie / 2022 / “Chronic Irritations / (Collective Edge)”
(b) inscribed (diagonally) in fibre-tipped pen on reverse u.r.: Ilana Savdie / 2022 / “Chronic Irritations / (Collective Edge)” - Accession Number
- 2023.357.a-b
- Department
- Contemporary Art
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of Byoung Ho Son, 2023
© Ilana Savdie - Gallery location
- Not on display
- About this work
-
Drawing on disparate subjects and environments as her source material, Ilana Savdie explores the multiplicity and interconnectedness of bodies. Many parts of her visual language find their origin in the Carnaval de Barranquilla, the annual multi-day festival presented in Barranquilla, Colombia, where she grew up. ‘We can locate in [Carnaval] a very queer history of exaggerating the body and taking up space beyond imposed and oppressive boundaries as forms of resistance and protest’, Savdie has explained. A central example of Carnaval’s transgressive spirit is the Marimonda, a hybrid character merging the physical attributes of a monkey and an elephant, often worn by festivalgoers as a fabric mask. The character’s large, round eyes and long, phallic nose can be spotted amid a flurry of forms in the right panel of this monumental painting.
