Current Review(s)
'Morbid Appetites'
Frances Goodman at Goodman GalleryIn her installation MINDONTHEMONEY, Frances Goodman satirizes both the iconic creators of luxury branded goods and those whose insatiable desire for these objects leads them to buy backstreet knockoffs at a fraction of the price.
All across Europe, immigrants from Africa, struggling to survive, sell belts, sunglasses, and particularly handbags, all copied from the brands which dominate the pages of Vogue down to the famous logos. These illicit wares are transported in suitcases and carrybags, so the itinerant salesman are ready to pack up and run at the first sign of the police.
MINDONTHEMONEY, then, echoes just such a scene.
12 November 2009 - 12 December 2009
Till death us do part
Frances Goodman at Goodman GalleryI worship you, but I loathe marriage. I hate its smugness, its safety, its compromise and the thought of you interfering with my work, hindering me; what would you answer?
All this pitting of sex against sex, of quality against quality; all this claiming of superiority and imputing of inferiority belong to the private-school stage of human existence where there are sides, and it is necessary for one side to beat another side.
- Virginia Woolf
The Goodman Gallery on Jan Smuts Road, Johannesburg, is a stately venue for a wedding reception. Its hollowed, white cube halls seem naturally suited to the jubilant chatter and feverish celebration associated with such events, with champagne the logical drink to fuel the party.
09 April 2011 - 07 May 2011
Questioning Goodman's Jewels on the Crotch: A Review of Cars And Girls
Frances Goodman at Whatiftheworld / GalleryOver the last ten years, Vajazzling - the fine art of bejewelling a woman’s pubic region with rhinestone crystals – has, after a slow start in the soft porn industry, gained an increasing momentum as a beauty procedure. In early 2010, Jennifer Love Hewitt gave the trend a public face when she announced on late night television that she had transformed her vagina - or, as she so artfully put it, her ‘precious lady’ - into a Swarovski-covered ‘pink disco ball’. Dubious euphemism aside, Hewitt’s nether regions are apparently famous enough to attract an inordinate amount of attention.So much so that while South Africa was buried up to its ears in World Cup hype, the USA was wading through the sparkly and labyrinthine shallows of Vagina-gate. Public opinion was divided: one group of Hewitt fans saw the celebrity’s confession as the act of a confident woman reclaiming her body after a painful break-up. Hewitt’s detractors - among whom, I assume, are those who neither know nor care about the minutiae of Hewitt’s love life - argued that crotch crystals contribute nothing to feminist dialogue and indeed, are just the latest manifestation of societal objectifying of the female body.
31 January 2013 - 09 March 2013
Listings(s)
'Morbid Appetites'
Frances Goodman at Goodman GalleryIn 'Morbid Appetites', Frances Goodman extends her interest in obsessive behaviour, examining the relationship between consumerism and dependency. Consisting of sculptures, installation and sound pieces, the exhibition explores how simple activities like eating, shopping and taking medicine can become dangerously pathological within a contemporary culture of excess.
12 November 2009 - 12 December 2009
'Till Death Us Do Part'
Frances Goodman at Goodman GalleryIn her latest solo show, Frances Goodman explores the terrain of our deep-seated obsessions, particularly those 'triggered by social prescription'. Through immersive sound pieces and mixed media works, Goodman examines the pressures, anxieties and expectations women experience, and in turn begin to exert on themselves.
09 April 2011 - 07 May 2011
'Touched'
Frances Goodman at (Art) AMALGAMATEDFor her first solo exhibition in the United States, Goodman combines works made in New York during her recent residency at the ISCP (International Studio and Curatorial Program) with older pieces that embody her expansive art career. This exhibition reflects Goodman’s interest in wordplay and humor through text. 'Touched' has multiple meanings: to be physically modified, to be emotionally affected and being participants in the various artworks.
28 June 2012 - 04 August 2012
'Cars and Girls'
Frances Goodman at Whatiftheworld / GalleryWHATIFTHEWORLD presents 'Cars and Girls', their first solo exhibition with international artist Frances Goodman. Goodman’s multimedia works explore issues of female identity by marrying the glittering allure of cars with that of women as symbols of desire, sex, success and promise. Many of the pieces on this materially-diverse exhibition are intentionally contradictory: seductive and poignant, yet simultaneously awkward and problematic.
The body of work includes sculptural pieces constructed from car parts and feminine accessories, as well as Goodman’s provocative photographic Vajazzling series. The latter was initiated during a residency in New York in 2012 and documents the adornment of various female torsos in a response to the commodification of the female body and its use in the media. Goodman’s concern with representation, objectification and participation in the media, and the subsequent ramifications of consumerism and desire on the female psyche, are key points of critical engagement in this latest body of work.
Goodman exhibits regularly, both in her native South Africa and internationally. After her most recent show in New York, exhibitions in London and Brussels are scheduled for 2013 and 2014. The exhibition is hosted in collaboration with the Goodman Gallery.
31 January 2013 - 09 March 2013
'Forever'
Frances Goodman at KZNSAFresh from a succesful show at the Goodman Gallery Johannesburg, Goodman's multi-disciplinary take on the mythologies of matrimony arrives at the main gallery KZNSA. From wishful thinking to venomous revenge, Goodman explores the caustic banalities of marriage.
28 June 2011 - 23 July 2011
