We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art stands and recognise the creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.
Deborah Kelly / Australia b.1962 / Beastliness (still, detail) 2011 / Digital animation shown as HD projection, DVD, 16:9, colour, sound, 3:17 mins, ed. 2/8 / Animation: Chris Wilson and Christian Heinrich / Original score by Brutal Poodles / Audio mastering: Steve Smart / Purchased 2011 with funds from the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Deborah Louise Kelly
Deborah KellyBeastliness 2011
Not Currently on Display
Beastliness takes as many aesthetic cues from MTV as it does from photomontage pioneer Hannah Höch and other proponents of early twentieth-century European Dada. Kelly’s uncanny fusion of animals, insects and women placed in a world of frenzied dancing presents a cultural critique in the form of a bacchanalian fantasy. Feathers fly as the creatures consume each other in a conclusion that formally resembles an ouroboros — the ancient symbol of a serpent eating its own tail, representing the circle of life and, in some contexts, immortality.
By re-mythologising femininity, Deborah Kelly considers stereotypes and other expectations that can demonise difference. Challenging stable notions of gender, the artist stands against any rhetoric that aims to divide and control us by proposing a predefined ‘normality’. Her strategy is to embrace diversity: these creatures represent many female forms, thoughts and experiences, and celebrate acceptance and freedom of expression.
Over the last fifteen years, Deborah Kelly has developed a high-profile public art practice using platforms many of us consider to belong to advertising media — flyers, billboards, public projections — as well as web‑based works shared through social media to enhance community participation in the discourses of the day.
In this time, Kelly has also maintained a distinct gallery practice based in collage and photomedia, including the works Beastliness 2011, which explore the production of meaning throughout history, and particularly contentious issues surrounding gender, sexuality and faith.
Deborah Kelly’s cross-media projects are designed to contribute to the complexities and pleasures of cultural life and public debate. From interventions in cityscapes to street-level discussion, her works are focused on topical social and political issues, and often involve a series of exchanges between artist and audience, inviting participation. More recently, Kelly has been making intricately crafted, collage-based works that move the emphasis from public to personal space.