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| Pitfalls aplenty, but merit and humour too
April 28, 2006 Edition 1
Miranthe Staden-Garbett
Llamas, lulus, B-52s, happy bags, cupcakes and hubcaps - you may be surprised to find they all have one thing in common. They appear in Adele Oldfield's pleasing, teasing From A- Z, and they all refer to what are more commonly known as mammary glands, which by the way, pop up all over this show, in all shapes and sizes.
Using the female form as a point of departure, Oldfield comments on tyrannical cultural practices that deem anything deviating from so-called normative ideals - whether pierced, pregnant, pumped up or plump - grotesque, freakish and undesirable. Questions arise concerning whether women are mere puppets at the mercy of some master plan, be it a patriarchal society or the manipulative media, or whether they are tugging their own torturous corset strings.
It is a typically feminist strategy that examines notions such as the male gaze, and the cultural construction of oppressive stereotypes, and though it has its moments, the likes of Sherrie Levine, Cindy Sherman, Jenny Saville, Vanessa Beecroft, Orlan and South African Leora Farber have done it already, and better. All the ingredients are there - surgical marks, mirrors, grotesque flesh spectacles, Barbie dolls, cookies and sweets - but overwhelmingly so, all at the same time.
Comforter has all the allure of a sack of horrible rubber udders, which it more or less is. I cling to the hope that the endangered natural breast can and must hold more appeal than this. I confess, albeit reluctantly, to being caught before it in the sway of a morbid fascination. Vast Contours would possibly be better titled Pink carnage of sadistic serial girl scout, whichever way you look at it. Well, perhaps one should avoid looking at it altogether.
Thankfully, Oldfield's sense of humour and playfulness saves the day. I laughed at her fake before- after flyer, which ambiguously assures that "you won't recognise yourself". In this case, the Barbie doll works. I was intrigued by the array of colourful pharmaceuticals titled What's your fix?, displayed in a transparent cabinet, jewel-like in precious, obsessive rows. And finally, the All sorts series won me over. When she's good, she's good.
Despite abounding pitfalls and clichés, the relationship of beauty to society and the individual, be it despotic or democratic, is one deserving of consideration.
The bottom line, though, remains that much coercion is at play, whatever the impossible standards, we do it to ourselves, often at the expense of common sense, integrity and even our own sanity. Oldfield's Master's exhibition assures us that there are indeed all sorts. Next to these, the "norm" seems exceedingly unimaginative and dull. - Miranthe Staden-Garbett
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