(SC)OOT(ER)ING around – Su san Cohn and Eugenia Raskopoulos

An exhibition of new and existing works by Su san Cohn, craft artist and Eugenia Raskopoulos, visual artist. The human body wears lived experience both on its skin, and within. It expresses the cultural, sexual, racial and diverse geographic experiences of individuals. Australian artists Su san Cohn and Eugenia Raskopoulos have explored the human body, often specifically female, for decades.

Adornment has an ancient history, and its relation to the body is decorative, symbolic of gender, status, spiritual and cultural beliefs. Su san Cohn’s work considers the role of jewellery in the politics of society, as gift, symbol, memorial, and as a communication and sensory tool. Her work often responds to current issues, such as war, the plight of refugees and peace-making.

Through photography, video and neon, Eugenia Raskopoulos has used her own story of transmigration as a touchstone for a textual exploration of the body. As an artist living between two languages, she creates bodily actions and images, often interwoven with neon text, in Greek, English and binary code. Her work considers a ruptured body, one that is not easily defined, or translated, and that defies what we expect of the female form.

While the exhibition includes several new works by each artist, it is conceived as an artistic collaboration between the two artists and the curator. It is a dialogue, one that has resulted in the final work in the exhibition, word of mouth, an actual collaborative installation made by Cohn and Raskopoulos.