Like bursts from a camera shutter, Abbey McCulloch’s new series Performance at Tweed Regional Gallery captures not only the most consciously posed and poised bodies, but those moments in between that reveal the out-takes, where gestures belie the vivacious, confident woman caught only a millisecond before.
Somehow, we all know one of these fabulous creatures. She oozes with self-possession, acuity and style. She has a kind of élan, or je ne sais quoi that can be neither bought or photoshopped. With a prolonged and desiring gaze we realise that she is not one, but many women. She is composite and contemporary taste. She is a construction created by you and I, and them ‘out there’.
In this moment, McCulloch’s aim comes into sharp relief, problematising the very act of looking. She asks simply, “What do you want from her?” And in asking this question, McCulloch characterises the expectations we place on others and ourselves in the performance of everyday life. Dr Laini Burton, 2016
Friday 9 December, 2016 to Sunday 26 February, 2017 at Tweed Regional Gallery.