Anna Dunnill Altar Piece #2
2017
Linen, yarn, embroidery floss, glazed stoneware beads, found beads
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) VCA Image courtesy the artist
To pierce, to puncture and the Altar Piece series form part of an investigation into the intersection of religious ritual and the queer body. This project seeks both to reclaim religious ritual and, through bodily markings, to transform the queer body into a space where queerness and religion can co-exist. For the video work the artist hand-tattooed a small area of her left palm with a delicate burst of colour - a deconstructed rainbow. The video recalls a number of religious rituals: the hand is cupped as though to receive communion, washed with water as though being baptised. The tattoo’s location in the palm references ‘stigmata’, the crucifixion wounds on Christ’s hands and feet. Significantly for this work, ‘stigmata’ is also the Ancient Greek word for tattoo: its root means ‘to pierce, prick or puncture’. The Altar Piece series are intricate embroideries on creased, skin-like linen. Referencing religious banners, they echo the tattoo process, becoming queer objects for personal devotion and meditation. Through a slow deliberate process of inscription the body is re-inscribed, placing queerness and religion in the same area of skin. Anna Dunnill is an artist and writer. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (First Class Honours) from the Victorian College of the Arts, and a Bachelor of Humanities (Creative Writing) from Curtin University. Her current research investigates the possibilities of ‘queering’ religious ritual, and includes embroidery, ceramics, performance, video, and tattoo.