Australasian Beauty, 2019Australasian Beauty is a solo exhibition of photomedia artworks investigating the fetishisation and infantilisation of Asian women in the Anglosphere. Appropriating the 1999 film ‘American Beauty’ Mullens uses the film as a mechanism to challenge the notions of the Gaze upon the Other through self-portraiture. She re-casts herself, an Asian-Australian, in the role of Angela Hayes: the young girl who becomes the Object of the main character’s desire. In this way she becomes both the subject and creator of the image, actively subverting the gaze and transforming the character dynamic from fantasy to power. This exhibition is part of a larger contemporary conversation about power dynamics in gender and racial relations. Recontextualising the film 20 years after its release, Mullens asks, who is looking at whom?
This exhibition was shown at PhotoAccess on Ngunnawal and Ngambri land from 18 July - 17 August 2019. A public program was held with writer Soo-Min Shim on 10 August 2019.
List of works:
Australasian Beauty 1 (film poster a), 2019 inkjet print 114.90 x 76.10cm Australasian Beauty 2 (2:15), 2019 inkjet print 45.0 x 80.0cm Australasian Beauty 3 (6:55), 2019 inkjet print 45.0 x 80.0cm Australasian Beauty 4 (19:53), 2018-2019 inkjet print 45.0 x 80.0cm Australasian Beauty 5 (37:24), 2019 inkjet print 45.0 x 80.0cm Australasian Beauty 6 (44.08), 2019 inkjet print 45.0 x 80.0cm Australasian Beauty 7 (1:52:12), 2019 inkjet print 45.0 x 80.0cm Australasian Beauty 8 (film poster b), 2018-2019 inkjet print 114.90 x 76.10cm Australasian Beauty 9 (16:23 - 17:10), 2019 single channel video, no sound 00:01:16 |