Objects of Beauty

‘Objects of Beauty’, part artist’s book and part retrospective monograph, is an illustrated volume of reflections on the common points of departure and interrelationships between different bodies of practice-based research over a period of years. These points of departure include the artist’s developing relationship with different ideas concerning gender and race, dark secrets and unfulfilled desires. This has been particularly key to the development of the practice in recent years when geographic borders between countries and continents are being increasingly dissolving or contested.

As one of the artist’s critics has observed of her creative practice “What is foreign, who is other and from whose perspective?” Eleven photographic series are considered. Many of them came about through commission, were developed through artist residencies and many are represented in national and international collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and Yale University. Of the eleven, ‘Language of Flowers’ was first exhibited in 2004 (Zelda Cheatle Gallery), ‘Celebrity Blonde’ was commissioned by Flypitch and first exhibited at Flypitch in 2003, ‘Cinderella Tours Europe’ was commissioned by the Organisation for Visual Arts and exhibited at Pitshanger Manor Gallery in 2001, ‘The Handbag Project’ was first exhibited at Zelda Cheatle Gallery in 2001, and ‘Girl Thing’ was first exhibited at The British Council, Colombo in 2001. The book takes each of the photographic series in turn and introduces them with a commentary which looks back on its evolution of the work and the core ideas that informed it. The book also carries Rohini Malik Okon’s interview with the artist. The extent to which different series have been in dialogue with each other, have been informed by background research in the libraries and archives, have involved a process of collecting objects to feature metaphorically within the images is drawn out in the text.