An Improver
Maisie’s been holding down her head all day,
Her little red head. And her pointed chin
Rests on her neck that slips so softly in
The square-cut low-necked darling dress she made In such a way, since it’s high-waisted, too,It lets you guess how fair young breasts begin Under the gentle pleasant folds of blue.
But on the roof at lunch-time when the sun Shone warmly and the wind was blowing free She lifted up her head to let me see
A little rosy mark beneath the chin –The mark of kisses. If her mother knew She’d be ashamed, but a girl-friend like me Made her feel proud to show her kisses to.
– Lesbia Harford (Australian Poet & Activist 1891 – 1927)
Dear Tara,
Greetings and thank you for all the information... you should be pleased in how the work is starting to coalesce and how you are envisaging the install at Glasshouse...
In relation to the ‘skyline’ pieces and in particular the silvery pieces; for me, they evoke the memory of Richard Serra’s key process work GUTTER CORNER SPLASH (1969) and including the 1995 NIGHT SHIFT remake at the SFMOMA...see YouTube link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S87QJfuLadY) for an engaging bit of commentary on the work, where Jonathan Katz riffs on its ‘butch hyperbolic masculinity,’ its ‘risk taking masculinity,’ and or seen as ‘ART AS RISK,’...and here am I thinking, can we say, in regards to these recent works of yours, there is a palpable sense of a risk taking femininity embedded in the textual, textural and gestural qualities of these new works; and following on from this, instead of a ‘prescribed per necessary (PPN),’ I’d like to proffer the idea of their and your visible and invisible inscribed and necessary – presence...
And yet, there are other aspects in this documentation that I also find interesting...they are the (text)ures of the backgrounds that give the works another state of existence versus the sterility of the White Cube... these are the fluid/ liquid backgrounds of the plywood as well as the other loosely painted backdrops for skyline – internal dialling... could some of these gestures and actions be brought to the gallery walls; so that in a way the walls become part of the work and install... a potential smudge or stain... a sort of visible seepage, a contamination, a virus, an edge... speaking of edges, there is a connectedness somewhat akin and apposite in the following quote from Ali Smith’s book Artful/Edge:
Edges involve extremes. Edges are borders. Edges are about identity, about who you are. Crossing a border is not a simple thing. Geopolitically, producing proof of identity. Who are you? You can’t cross till we’re sure. When we know, then we’ll decide whether you can or not.
Edge is the difference between one thing and another. It’s the brink. It suggests keenness and it suggests sharpness. It can wound. It can cut. It’s the blade – but it’s the blunt part of the knife too.
It’s the place where two sides of a solid thing come together. It means bitterness and it means irritability, edginess, and it means having the edge, having the advantage. It’s something we can go right over. It’s some thing we have on someone or something when we are doing better than him or her, it (or them). It’s something we can set teeth on. And if we take the edge of something, we’re making something more present, but we’re also diminishing it.
Aleks:
...and, what is left behind is a Permanent Marker...
Tara:
“A collection of line-based sculptures; metallic objects that slip between different materials that contain the imprints of the artist’s fingers or former clothing. Working with ferocious force, Tara’s making integrates the sculptural, with automatic drawing; using her hands to stretch wax into objects that are often melted back down to be reincarnated later. As a survivor of psychosis, she has long relied on non- verbal communication in order to survive. Retaining this private dialogue of gesture, Tara’s pieces contain the energy of a psyche in insistent transformation. In a community group, Tara connected with an anonymous older woman who helped translate phrases of text into shorthand. In the work (skyline_internal_dialling), Tara quotes a line of graffiti she remembers from her time in a psychiatric ward. (I could be on a yacht eating pizza instead...) but thinks, ‘instead I am here!’”
‘SHE DOES NOT FEEL LIKE DO(ING) IT’
Aleks:
...but then, I am also captivated by the grittiness revealed within the photographs of your studio, and mesmerised by the discarded clothing in combination with the mirrored surfaces and their abject stare... it is a distinctive hallmark of their material resistance...
Tara:
My partner asked this morning... “why all the lines in the sculpture work?” as she was editing the bio/text for the Glasshouse... as Elaine Kahn writes... when I tell my story I decide the end... I repeat over and over as no one ever sat down to listen to hear both sides... all sides in fact... a story that repeats, like a cast... if I don’t end mine on a loop who else will! ...my tough bitch persona... I want to hang up that leather jacket (discard it)... it has been surviving for too long... I’m heading to the studio to finish one more idea for the show... (Idea) – a used basketball with a former leather jacket signed with my graffiti tag I made while on a residency.
When I was younger I was equally good at basketball at a representative level and netball. My mother adored everything about basketball. The coach told me as I increased my training I had to choose to focus on one or the other. I didn’t like either but I could read the play of both. I chose netball simply because of my genetics, being average height and in netball this meant you could play the centre courts of attack
and defence. It was good enough.
Now that I know about capitalism and patriarchy, it feels it is NEVER ENOUGH.
In closing, I have to say, the other tool is my tongue and it sits comfortably in silence...
Thank you for subscribing to my only-fan email...
My secret muse is a big contributor too.
When she met me she did not understand my need for privacy and me her insistence for transparency.
We agreed to find a sweet spot.
– signed by an x-club rat
My name backwards is A RAT.
P.S. disco never dies.
PECULIAR IDEA
HA – HA
TA – RA
Text compiled by Aleks Danko and Tara Denny on the occasion of Permanent Marker, Gertrude Glasshouse, Naarm Melbourne, August 2025
