University Art Gallery

She's So Sweet

• She's So Sweet - Catalogue

She's So Sweet, an exhibition of photography by Sydney artist, Barbara Doran, as part of UWS wide International Women’s Day celebrations.

She's So Sweet is a series of rosy pink photographs, harking back to the 60's model woman and housewife. Here she has evolved to a 5 star energy rated woman, who does it all. She cooks, she cleans, she brings home the bacon, she keeps herself looking good and keeps us connected to our kin.

These images are ponderables. On one hand the artist is trying to elude to a faultless, fantasy world - one that is not ours – but the familiar 60’s feel reminds us this is somewhere we have come from and the insertion of very contemporary symbols defies dismissing this all as ‘the past’. These images tease us – prompt us to ask how far have we come – is it really about doing it all with 5 star energy ratings? Can we sustain it all and do we really have the energy? How much 'fun are we having'? Was and is 'damned domesticity' all that bad? Maybe we need to re-edit the script.

• About the Artist

Barbara Doran was born 1971 in Wagga Wagga, Australia and grew up in Southern African countries Swaziland and Zimbabwe. Known for a diverse mix of skills, studies and experiences, her artwork similarly employs inter-disciplinary mediums macro and micro relationships between physical and symbolic systems. Barbara’s work has been exhibited in solo and group shows since 2003. Barbara Doran’s work focuses upon the shifting grounds of mythologies, their disparities, values, histories and the very ‘real’ realities they bare. Doran grew up in Africa where these issues were highly visible. Returning to Australia and the ‘developed’ world only enhanced her awareness that there are 2 sides to every coin.

Her art is also informed by other life experiences including world travel and studies in architecture, psychology, philosophy and anthropology. She has a MA in Environmental Planning and Environmental Aesthetics and is a lecturer at the University of New South Wales. She has built a rammed earth house by hand and played a co–coordinating role in community development projects and festivals. For the last 7 years Doran has been working in multimedia including film, music and performance.