Anita Holtsclaw and Ruth McConchie

Anita Holtsclaw and Ruth McConchie

14 December–08 March 201414 Dec–08 Mar 2014

Since 1997, we have presented Fresh Cut, an annual exhibition showcasing our pick of emerging local artists. The show is limited to artists born or living in Queensland, who are up to six years out of art school, who have not shown at the IMA before. This year, the four artists have been selected by IMA Director Robert Leonard and artist and QUT lecturer Grant Stevens. They are Joseph Breikers, Caitlin Franzmann, Anita Holtsclaw, and Ruth McConchie. Each will receive $5k to help them realise their work for the show, courtesy of a Creative Sparks grant from Brisbane City Council and Arts Queensland. The show comes in two installments. Breikers and Franzmann went first. Now it is Holtsclaw and McConchie’s turn. Both of them make works addressing the gaze—voyeurism and surveillance. Holtsclaw explores the representation of women (and the feminine) in cinema. She presents her romantic films in specially constructed cinema enclosures, made of translucent drapes. McConchie’s creepy installations incorporate secret passageways and crawl spaces from which we can perv on others (and imagine them perving on us). Her Fresh Cut installation could be a film set—it suggests a cinematic mise-en-scene.