Lara Schnitger’s large-scale sculptural installation House of Heroines, created for the NGV Triennial, draws on the representation of women in ancient architecture, reflecting contemporary expressions of women’s voice, sexuality and agency. The work features quilted sequinned fabric panels wrapped around the walls of the gallery space, with Schnitger’s drawings and text etched into the two-tone fabric, and four columns that recall the caryatids of ancient temple architecture which use the female body as a structural form, to explore the boundaries of socially accepted femininity and the aspects of this regarded as obscene or taboo.
Schnitger discusses the concept and creative process behind the artwork with NGV’s Curator of Contemporary Art Pip Wallis.