Working together since the early 1980s, Janet Burchill and Jennifer McCamley have developed an expansive framework of formal and thematic concerns drawing broadly on the histories of art and design, film, literature and cultural theory. Influenced by feminism, and applying an appreciation and critique of modernism, they make visually stunning artworks across an ever-expanding repertoire of mediums—from painting and sculpture, photography and printmaking, to neon light and textile works.
This exhibition delves into the startling diversity of their artistic production, and their philosophy of ‘material conceptualism’, which highlights the spaces between objects, images and ideas. It will reveal the free spirit of enquiry and invention that has underpinned their practice from the 1980s up until today. Borrowing and adapting its title from an earlier group of photographs and installations, Temptation to Co-Exist celebrates the achievement of these innovative artists, and the collaborative partnership they have sustained over several decades.