The thinnest skin covers the eyelids, the thickest on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It’s the body’s largest organ and serves to safeguard us from bacteria and other organisms—this protective barrier providing much more than what is seen on the surface layer.
Thin Skin is the accompanying publication to the exhibition held at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) in 2023, curated and edited by Jennifer Higgie, and featuring paintings by thirty-six Australian and international artists, living and dead. The book includes poetic contemplations on ‘thin skin’ from Higgie; a specially commissioned story by novelist Chloe Aridjis—inspired by the paintings in the exhibition—as well as email correspondence between the artists and Higgie; all of which illuminate the myriad and ambiguous ways that ‘thin skin’ can be interpreted.
There are many parallels between skin and painting, as Higgie notes. “Paint is a thin skin on a surface—a layer that transmits ideas into the world.” This painterly skin could be describing the way in which human skin feels. To the touch it can be bumpy, wrinkled, smooth; with both skin and painting able to register a feeling, sensation, and temperature.
A major theme emerging from Thin Skin is the notion of how we see it. Many of the artists traverse this thin membrane, hovering between interior and exterior, past and present, head and heart. There is a playful and imaginative world to be found here. What makes this publication so enjoyable is the curiosity Higgie brings to engaging with each artist, which gives Thin Skin its backbone. It’s exposing the thinking and feeling within each artist’s work and revealing a deep love of the medium of painting—through thick and thin.
Thin Skin is curated and edited by Jennifer Higgie and published by Monash University Museum of Art and Monash University Publishing.
You can purchase a copy at the Art Guide Bookstore.
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