When Julie Rrap looks at the life size bronze of herself standing on her own shoulders, she's amazed the massive sculpture is all in one piece.
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"It's like Frankenstein, I've been cut up and put back together on quite a few occasions," the artist said.
Rrap is one of Australia's most influential feminist artists, and her $100,000 commission with the Art Gallery of Western Australia was unveiled on Thursday at the Melbourne Art Fair.
SOMOS (Standing On My Own Shoulders) is not only a feat of sculptural engineering, but also proposes that unlike their male counterparts, women artists may not be able to stand on the shoulders of giants.
"My work always has a kind of playful undertone, but I did have serious business going on at the same time," Rrap said.
The work was cast from silicon moulds of her own nude body, taken in many sections, with some casts requiring her to pose for up to two hours.
To convincingly show herself balancing on her own shoulders, for example, Rrap had a plaster cast made of the top part of her body, so she could stand on top of it while more impressions were taken of her feet and legs.
"It has got my toes up, which turned out to be good, it's sort of what you do if you're trying to balance," she said.
The Melbourne Art Fair features the work of more than 60 commercial galleries and Aboriginal art centres.
Another drawcard at the 2024 event is the final painting by Howard Arkley, on show to the public for the first time.
Untitled (House) was made before the acclaimed artist's death from a heroin overdose in 1999, just after he won international praise representing Australia at the Venice Biennale.
The painting is on display at the Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art booth and is expected to sell for $1.5 million.
Fibre artist Tammy Kanat was announced as the winner of the $5000 Richard Parker art award for her framed tapestries, and said the prize would give her further room to experiment.
"I'm restless and fearless ... I like to explore what doesn't exist," she told AAP.
2023 Archibald prizewinner Julia Gutman had fresh work on show at the Sullivan and Strumpf booth, a suspended two-dimensional textile figure of a woman looking into a standing mirror.
Melbourne painter Anthony Romagnano presented works in his new medium of acrylic, one of 11 artists on show at Arts Project Australia, alongside Lisa Reid's nostalgic ceramics including "1990s Sony Mega Bass Walkman with a Dolly Parton Tape".
At nanda/hobbs, Irish-born painter Jonathan Dalton had a witty take on still life, with hyper-realistic images of various items - alarm clocks, books, classical vases - immersed in fish tanks.
His gallerist expects these to sell within hours, a confidence broadly in evidence at the show, which is open from Thursday to Sunday at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Australian Associated Press
