Subversive Spaces

Exhibition Statement

The exhibition ‘Subversive Spaces’ is a collaborative project between female mentors and mentees, whose practices overturn normalized perspectives, methods, and values to offer more subverted viewpoints on art histories, place, and sensation. This collaborative project was initially generated through conversation between professorial colleagues Debra Porch (USA/Australia) and Jay Younger (Australia) at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art, along with Beata Batorowicz (Poland/Australia) at the University of Southern Queensland. These established artists developed a close connection and understanding of their students through their role as research supervisors.

Debra Porch worked with Alija Bezer (Australia), Jay Younger worked with Christine Ko (Taiwan/Australia), and Beata Batorowicz with Linda Clark (Australia). The traditional boundaries and distinctions between mentor and mentee have also been subverted in the making of this exhibition through collaboration and mutual influence. The tone of ‘Subversive Spaces’ is unequivocally one of respect and equality. Artworks powerfully occupy and transform The Hold’s artspaces three galleries into worlds unto themselves.

 Exhibition Blurb, 2015. This page concentrates on the collaboration between Debra Porch and Ali Bezer, who exchanged and subverted many ideas about sensory perception, translation, and materiality.