Cover image of the review
Title image: Installation view, *White Against Red 1-6,* 2018 250 x 150cm. Image courtesy the artist and Sutton Gallery, Melbourne. Photography: Christo Crocker.)

Anne Ferran: White Against Red


20 Oct 2018
Sutton Gallery 13 Oct - 10 Nov 2018

Six large photographs of the dancer and choreographer Ervi Sirén hang from metal brackets near the ceiling of Sutton gallery. Like banners they are suspended in the bright space of the old C.V. Fashions building in Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. They are all the same size and weighted by heavy dowels sewn into the ends of the canvas bolts onto which the images have been printed. Sirén wraps herself in different lengths of felt—she is otherwise naked—and her long red hair flows across her face while her body carries the thick bundles coloured red, white and cerulean blue on grey. There is a martial flavor to these works, some images seem to mark out a montage sequence of gestures, although this is an obvious association to make initially. On a trestle-table sits a series of prints bound in red cloth. The Open Book is viewed with the strict assistance of a gloved gallery attendant, and therefore remains closed for the most part. There are conditions for these photographs, and that implies their viewing may have implications.

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