Private Parts

About the exhibition
Private Parts was an exhibition that brought together installations, paintings, photographs and video performances by nine Australian artists to explore the potency of our most secret thoughts. With a distinctly psychological bent and a pronounced sexual edge—both heterosexual and homosexual in nature—the exhibition delved into themes ranging from psychosexual drama (Jane Burton, Deej Fabyc) and trauma and obsession (Bonita Ely, David Rosetzky, Jenny Watson) to the eroticised body (Brent Harris, Lyndal Jones) and abstractions of pleasure (Deborah Ostrow, Brett Valance).

Curated by Natalie King, Private Parts framed contemporary art of the 1990s through the lens of psychoanalysis, drawing particularly on Laura Mulvey’s seminal essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ (1975). King's curatorial approach considered how the erotic gaze has shaped both the production and reception of works of art.

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^{Image: Brent Harris, Just a Feeling No. 3 1996, oil on linen, 106.5 x 85 cm. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of Martin Browne Fine Art, Sydney}