Regardless of medium, there are some recognisable categories of artists. There are those who find their niche/brand/image and unleash their creativity within those parameters, for instance local Melbourne artist Mahos Drawing or the band AC/DC (who have arguably made the same album for 50 years). Others keep expanding and reconfiguring their artistic vocabulary, continually giving themselves new parameters to work within; for instance, Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. Arc One’s new exhibition, Body Heat, showcases Honey Long and Prue Stent, who are firmly in the latter category.
Although only working together since 2010, the female duo has amassed a striking catalogue in a variety of visual languages. Their series Phanta Firma consists of staged photography not unlike the works of the great Storm Thorgerson. Some of these images adorned the streets of Sydney in 2021 and Melbourne art gallery Blindside even turned one into a jigsaw.
Mentioning Yorke is not accidental – the new exhibition from Honey and Prue (as they are professionally known) is nicely akin to Yorke’s recent solo shows in Australia, as it’s a mix of languages, mediums, voices and ideas – but it’s all still recognisably their work.
Perhaps the most immediately obvious word for this exhibition is colourful. Whether primary or secondary, real or digitally enhanced, two- or three-dimensional, every piece uses colour to drag the viewer into its world. The blood red of Mouth Bud and Red Sip, the blue/green in Sea Slip and Water Chamber and the enveloping blackness of Night Flower and Night Silk all prove that colour is pivotal to this exhibition’s language.
Along with colour, Honey and Prue have always also explored texture, especially juxtaposing ones, along with curves and features of the female form, and often finding similarities or differences between them and the natural world.
Examples of this are the photos and sculptures in Phanta Firma mentioned above, and that are also in this exhibition; for instance, Water Chamber, where some form of marine life, or part thereof (gill? vent?) visually echoes part of the female body and leaves nothing to the imagination while doing so.
While Honey and Prue’s photography often takes in whole scenes, just as often it focuses on the micro. Iris and Third Eyelid focus on the eye of a cat and a black swan respectively, pointing out the differences in texture between the eyes and their surrounding landscapes of fur or feathers.
The artists explore every part of the female form, in long shots, close-ups or anything in between; for instance, the belly in the piece Solarised, or the navel in Photo Australia’s book (which is available at the gallery). One pair of photos contrasts a roughly textured wall of weathered rock with the smooth, sparkling surface around the belly button of presumably one of the artists (not to mention some kind of fish swimming inside it in another photo). These photos show the disparity between organic and non-organic, which Kleopatra also does well.
The glassworks scattered around the gallery, some sitting on or sprawled on plinths, others drooping on a wall, add a welcomingly different visual element to the show, as opposed to being placed beside a natural rock. They also add some humour; for instance, the pair of elongated, sagging works entitled I dreamt I was Eating Really Long Grapes I and II.
According to their bio on Arc One’s site, Long and Stent “construct surreal scenes where the body is employed as both raw material and apparition, becoming a conduit for subconscious feelings and interpretation”. This exhibition is certainly an embodiment of that ethos, with animals, environments, digital mixing, glass snakes and stretched globules thrown into the mix.
Read: Theatre: August: Osage County, Belvoir Street Theatre
All in all, this show is staggeringly slick and confident. It may not be the most obviously coherent exhibition, but akin to exhibitions by Japanese artist Sayoko Suwabe, who employs a large toolbox of mediums, there’s a feeling that there is indeed a central vision behind all these works – discovering that link is part of the enjoyment.
As filmmaker David Lynch has said, everything comes from the idea; the idea is what you follow as you make your art. Just stay true to the idea. It appears that this duo is staying true to theirs.
Honey Long and Prue Stent: Body Heat will be exhibited at Arc one Gallery until 1 February 2024.
