Toes Up is an immersive installation that brings together intricate collage-based paintings with hand-painted stop-motion animations and ceramic sculptures.
Drawing inspiration from medieval and contemporary attitudes toward death, the exhibition is centred around the Danse Macabre—a historical allegory depicting death leading all to their graves through an absurd, carnivalesque dance.
The works explore themes of death denial, euphemisms, and the turbulent emotions tied to uncertainty, using slapstick humour and the playful language of cartoons to make darker themes approachable. Highlights include large-scale un-stretched canvases inspired by euphemisms like “pushing up daisies,” juxtaposed with smaller framed works that integrate personal photographs, cartoons, and found imagery.
Visitors will navigate a dynamic installation where layered paintings are suspended like tapestries and animations draw viewers into visceral, yet whimsical, narratives. By reframing dying with wit and creativity, Worm Food invites critical reflection on how confronting mortality can alleviate anxiety and foster acceptance.
Artist statement
At the core of my practice is the question of how to deal with death as the ultimate, inevitable unknown. I am a Naarm-based artist who explores anxiety, failure and the absurd, drawing on experiences of mental health conditions and encounters with death. Using a personal yet playful methodology, my practice finds intersections of collage, painting and animation to create experimental, multi-media works. Through intricate paintings, layering a network of imagery, and slapstick animations with visceral textures and messy ends, my work encourages viewers to laugh in the face of death, or at least have a conversation about it.
G1 and G2 Galleries are wheelchair accessible and accessible toilets are available.