Michele Beevors Tin Sheds 27 July - 18 August

Michele Beevors is showing the results of 3 year's work, funded by the Australia Council. In Kmart We Trust is on at Tin Sheds.

Beevors is most recently influenced by Naomi Kline's writing on multinational brands. Beevors read Kline in the context of a long-standing interest in commodity fetishism and feminism. Both of these themes are primary influences in this show.

Three Xena action dolls made of latex and expanding poly foam, each standing 8'6" against their purple presentation backing boards. After a minute's observation you realise that the latex is black and that their skin tone is painted on. Her sooty complexion becomes a deep sign, like black power, as she stands ready with breasts harder than silicon.

Beevors saw a five year old with a Xena doll acting out victorious battles and was led to consider the extent to which children, the consumers, engage in capitalism by playing in the dynamic of an extreme toy fetishism. She raises quesitons of how we live in a culture, wanting the next "best" thing.

Around the exhibition are silhouettes of instantly recognisable figures.

"Fun with Scully and Mulder"

Scully and Mulder holding hands, running purposefully with a heart and ovaries that we can fit into the puzzle of disembodied organs, floating like nebulous star systems in a space that might yield the paranormal. You can't help but whistle that eerie, disembodied theme.

"Garden of Earthly Delights"

My favourite actor, John Travolta, striking a pose that I remember I was particularly good at. His identity contains snakes and ladders and images from the jungle world of a children's book.

Kermit lies in a daisy chain across the floor, caste in bronze, finished with cruelly sharp edges, sharp enough to catch on the fabric of any doll. He is a highly valued art object lying around on the floor, "like a bit of fluff" in some way echoing the origins of Henson's original. Kermit was made from a green bath mat, transforming a low value everyday object into a highly prized commercial one.

Charlie's Angels make an appearance. Pain-stakingly painted, they have been mysteriously tied in with the witchy symbol of the Charmed ones.

Down the back, in her own shooting gallery, there is mystery guest who spins flat on the wall like a propeller or a gun around a gunslinger's index finger. Her figure is overlaid with so many guns like knives thrown at a spinning wheel. Her identity is covered with the American flag.

Goodyear & Everlast

This pair of cuddly, boxing, pyjarma kangaroos are a recycled mascot left over from the Olympics and the America's Cup.

What was our national rallying point before the America's Cup? Beevors was in Canberra and doesn't remember one and neither do I.

Originally from Merrylands, Sydney, Beevors came to this exhibition after completing her masters at Colombia University, New York between 94 and 97. She began her formal art education 10 years ago at COFA and then moved on to Fine Arts Honours at Sydney University and completed her Masters at Canberra's Institute of the Arts before winning a scholarship to Colombia.

A wonderful show - larger than life. Go see.