Domestic Departures at Chalk Horse Gallery

By Benjamen Judd

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We have some truly amazing artists here in Sydney and some equally amazing galleries who provide them with a space to display their works and ideas. Chalk Horse Gallery is one such gallery and their current exhibition, Domestic Departures, showing until October 4 is an example of the abundance of creativity that resides in Sydney’s residents.

Domestic Departures is a collection of work from three artists – Abdul Abdullah, Jasper Knight and James Oram – who, over two spaces, explore what we mean by the term ‘home’.

Commissioned by Chalk Horse Gallery all artists have answered the question in their own inimitable way. The show is grounded in our everyday lives and tries to explore our normal concerns: money, family, and the way home functions to create our sense of identity. Across video, photography and sculpture all three artists are bound by a sort of magical realism, whose fantastical structures in the end could prove “realer than the real.” James Oram continues a body of video performance work based on small everyday gestures which on the screen take on serious metaphoric weight. Jasper Knight returns to sculpture and produces for the first time in years his exciting collages made from found materials. We are excited too to have Abdullah’s first show with the gallery. Abdullah’s work tests the boundaries of what home is in terms of the national psyche, who is excluded and how do you get on “Team Australia.”

A challenging, and eye-opening, exhibition that have you thinking about where you position yourself in the revolving politics of identity and place, Domestic Departures is an exhibition not to be missed.

Domestic Departures is now showing at Chalk Horse Gallery until October 4.