Brave to the Bone

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Martin Browne Contemporary, Paddington

by Sharne Wolff

Champagne tops, lint, bat bones and quail bones, pink pearls, fish teeth, cow bones and leather – the room sheet for Linde Ivimey’s Brave to the Bone sounds more like a recipe for a witches’ brew. With her first major exhibition back in 2003, many audiences will now be familiar with Ivimey’s narrative sculptures, many comprised almost entirely of old bones. The works in Brave to the Bone range in size from the child-sized chicken-bone bunny in Life Buoy to tiny works like Let Sleeping Dogs Lie. Largely autobiographical, assisting with her stories told by a menagerie of animal-like sculptures, Ivimey’s work is intriguingly ambiguous and rewarded by careful attention.

Ivimey says that bones are “the stuff of us” and are employed in her work as references to emotional strength and weakness. Of late, Ivimey has been sick with cancer and while the title of the show refers to courage and resilience, one can’t help but imagine that many works reference her facing severe illness. The appearance of the black dog in several pieces is perhaps a not-so-subtle reference to the difficulties of coping with her circumstances. While all this might sound a bit depressing, the sheer joy depicted by the bunny hugging the dog (The Great White Hope) and later claiming victory in Bucking Black Dog make the journey all the more worthwhile.

Pic: Linde Ivimey
The Tamer  2014,
Acrylic resin, steel, dyed cotton, organic fibre, chicken, fish and quail bones, fish teeth and felt 55 x 28 x 15 cm (figure),
33 x 30 x 83 cm (dog)
Courtesy the artist and Martin Browne Contemporary.