University Art Gallery

Cloaked, Caught and Carefree

• Tanya Richards - Artist Statement

Cloaked, Caught and Carefree is the latest exhibition in a innovative art research project Dubiously Wholesome by the contemporary artist and performer Tanya Richards. The project's main aim is to create a series of works that replace the gallery with the home and offers a private art experience for the participant or viewer.

Cloaked, Caught or Carefree explores the dualities in the human condition caused by the tension between the desire for conformity and individuality in the construction of self. It focuses upon the development of the everyday individual and the masks created to cope with the expectations upon one's own behaviour. It asks, 'What is behind these masks?' and answers through an exploration of the mystery, distraction, boredom, fantasy and psychosis that lurks behind repetitious everyday experiences.

In exploring the dualities in the human condition, Cloaked, Caught and Carefree looks at gendered identities and the impact they have on the dualities of the self, from the perspective of the artist’s own experience of constructing identity. The thematic content and aesthetic realisation of the work revolves around a process of hybridisation of video and aerial performance. The work juxtaposes the strength and skill required to perform aerial acrobatics with a sense of helplessness, pain and constraint invoked by the body language of the performer. This contradiction is used to express the limitations and expectations of weaving feminine and masculine aspects of identity, resulting in a duality within oneself. It celebrates strength as well as alluding to the constraints of gendered identity.