THE 2014 GEORGES MORA FOUNDATION FELLOWSHIP
HAS BEEN AWARDED TO INEZ DE VEGA
Inez de Vega is a performance and video artist based in Melbourne.
Referencing compelling visual imagery from the history of art, cinema and theatre, Inez plays with the past to tell contemporary stories of trauma, transgression and psychological neuroses.
Inez grew up in a family addicted to Hollywood musicals and it is this popular art form that delivers the starting point for her performances. By merging a theatrical aesthetic with her own personal allegory, she creates bold characters that combine satire with sincerity.
In her performances, these individuals are often driven to extremes. They transgress social norms and articulate the mental states that collectively we do our best to hide from one another. Whether our mental suffering is the result of a diagnosable psychiatric illness or merely the anxieties of everyday living, Inez believes that we each find a way of acting out our neuroses. And therein lies her obsession: how do we perform our own madnesses?
Still image: Inez de Vega, Dying not to be, 2013, HD video
Still image: Inez de Vega, Dying not to be, 2013, HD video
Inez de Vega, Dying not to be, 2013, HD video 08:00 (03:00 Excerpt above)
'Dying Not to Be' is an 8-minute theatrical monologue written and performed by Inez de Vega. It is a black comedy on the complexities of committing suicide. Created during her residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, 'Dying Not to Be' is the next instalment in de Vega’s quest to fulfil her childhood ambition of becoming a movie star. Its visual references derive from classical paintings, the representations of anxious and dislocated women in cinema, and the photographs of Cindy Sherman in 'Untitled Film Stills' (1977-1980).
Inez de Vega, Suite, 2012, HD video 01:58
'Suite' is a mini musical melodrama. It is a meditation on being a nobody in a world where everybody wants to be a somebody. Borrowing footage from 'The Sweet Life' by Italian neorealist filmmaker Federico Fellini, performance artist Inez de Vega sings about the futility of life without youth, beauty and fame while wishing she was one of the director's celebrated heroines from the 1960s.
Still image: Inez de Vega, My father the fool, 2011 HD video
INEZ DE VEGA'S FELLOWSHIP PROJECT:
DISORDER!
Lillian Temple-‐Dumble - Performing Transgression in Australian Art
Inez de Vega, Lillian Temple-Dumble, 2014
My newly created character, Lillian Temple-Dumble, describes herself as a cross between an art consultant, educator and counsellor. My aim is for her to skirt the line between comedy and considered opinion. Lillian is an outsider – she will review artworks in the galleries by stealth; take a D.I.Y. approach to interviewing transgressive artists; and deliver her stories about art and transgression in her make-shift amphitheatre on the steps of the State Library.
I would like to use Lillian as a vehicle to explore transgression in Contemporary and Historical Australian Art. I view transgression as an act that pushes against mainstream social or moral constraints. Using the vast resources of the State Library, Lillian will try to uncover stories of transgressive female artists and performers in our history about whom the public may know little. Moving from the historical to the present day, she will then interview contemporary Australian artists who are dealing with the transgressive in their work.
- Inez de Vega 2014
Inez de Vega, Lillian Temple-Dumble & Greatest Hits' Maximalist Cat, 2014, HD Video, 03:11
Melbourne art consultant Lillian Temple-Dumble is at the NGV in Federation Square, stealing into the recent blockbuster 'Melbourne Now' exhibition. Although Lillian is saddened by the lack of performance art, she does find one artwork that contains all the drama of a performance: Greatest Hits' Cat!