Bruno Booth. Photo by Duncan Wright.
Bruno Booth
Commission
Ground Floor Concourse & Throughout Gallery
Until 14 February
A family of 34 slinking, stretching, technicolour cats make themselves at home around the gallery.
An artist whose cross-media practice addresses the challenges and possibilities of negotiating the world from a wheelchair, Bruno Booth’s Feline good, hbu? brings to light relationships between the cultural and the physical.
As his cats sleep, prowl and peer from surprising locations, they function as guides who make us gently aware of how we orient our bodies and minds in relation to artworks and formal public spaces like galleries. At times, they might suggest that the angle from which we see a painting or sculpture reveals or shuts down an understanding.
At other times, they demonstrate that art is displayed according to conventions, like a “standard” hanging height that doesn’t offer optimal access to many people. Given they read and speak cat, these felines bring to light that many of us are put off by how words — like these — are used to describe art.
“You would never normally see cats in a gallery space. But at the same time, they’d be at home if they were there, even if the space isn’t designed for them.” — Bruno Booth
Tackling the ways cultural institutions “police” what they show and who engages, Booth’s finely spray-painted forms decked out in hand-crafted streetwear are examples of the liberating pleasure we might allow ourselves in unapologetically coming at the art world and the world entire, from our own uniquely dazzling vantage points.
This WA Artist Commission is generously supported by John and Linda Bond.
