We acknowledge and pay respect to the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional custodians of the Country upon which Martin Browne Contemporary stands. © Martin Browne Contemporary © All images copyright of the artist. This catalogue is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. COMPILER: Bianca Luciano ARTWORK PHOTOGRAPHER: Brett East PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER: Thea Elder COLOUR SEPARATIONS: Spitting Image, Sydney Front Cover: Monica Rani Rudhar, Drop Earrings That Once Belonged to My Mother, 2022, terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 125 x 163 cm
MONICA RANI RUDHAR Close Your Eyes and Hold Out Your Hand 12 October - 4 November Opening Reception 2:00 - 4:00 PM Saturday 14 October 2023
MAR TIN BROWNE CONTEMPORARY 15 HAMPDEN STREET PADDINGTON NSW 2021 TEL: 02 9331 7997 MOB: 0414 881 999 info@martinbrownecontemporary.com www.martinbrownecontemporary.com GALLERY HOURS: TUESDAY - SATURDAY 10:30AM - 6PM SUNDAY - MONDAY BY APPOINTMENT
Every brown woman I know understands that if it is not 22 karat, then it really doesn’t count. In the West, soft and malleable is not a quality I associate with metal: the idea of vulnerability. That without care this, like anything important, could break. When I first encountered Monica’s terracotta earrings, I was reminded firstly of how much I love South Asian adornment. It reminds me of all my relationships and the gesture of receiving a gift from a loved one. One of the last moments I had with my Aaji before she passed was going into Sigatoka town and helping her choose a pair of earrings that my mother and I bought for her. There is a specific feeling when you walk into an Indian jeweller no matter where you are in the world. There is a sense of precariousness. Nothing is set, everything is weighed and measured, a reminder that in this place of beauty we are connected to a globalised market. The weight of gold is not in the eye of the beholder but in the control of some nameless force shifting the weights to create an arbitrary measure of money and intention. Auntie could give us a discount if the market runs in her favour. Beauty has nothing to do with it. Close your eyes and hold out your hand. The exhibition is a series of terracotta sculptures informed by Monica’s personal relationships. Husbands and wives, sons and mothers, nieces and aunts. Pairs of relationships, lines of connection that are both tenuous because of distance and tethered together because of love. All the earrings referenced are from family members, either given to her or waiting for her. They are a reminder of both time and lineage. India and being Indian is a mythical place if you are part of the Diaspora. Access and entry to it comes from the relationships to the people who invite you in. It comes from the objects you are allowed to wear. Jewellery becomes a cypher which enables you to feel embodied, to feel connected, and to feel and be shown love. These are not mere trinkets but something that connects you wholly to something that sits on your skin, even when you can’t speak the language or know how to put on a sari correctly. These ceramic works move from wall hangings to tiles. Blown up adornments made from images shared via WhatsApp, held in trust and waiting until the right moment to be returned. The works take tokens of love and memory and transform them into monuments of familial and cultural love. These memorial forms recall architectural decorations found on temples, as well as the earrings they reference. Scale is an indicator of that change. To me these works are tender objects that remind me of relationships that can never be close because of distance, but still hold a place in the heart. Materially the works are made from terracotta and gilded - a reminder of earth and the histories of earthenware that shape the subcontinent. In making these objects, the fragility of the ceramic form is always present. I am reminded that these objects have the capacity to live for millennia, or moments. Outliving the relationships informing them, carrying whole histories. All we have to do is hold out our hand, and close our eyes. - Shivanjani Lal
LIST OF WORK 1. Hoops That Once Belonged To My Mother, 2022, brass, terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 113 x 170 cm 2. Drop Earrings That Once Belonged To My Mother, 2022, terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 125 x 163 cm 3. Safe Keeping 1, 2023, terracotta, glaze, gold lustre 32 x 32 cm 4. Drop Earrings That Once Belonged to My Mother 2, 2022, terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 30 x 70 cm 5. Dadi Ji’s Earrings 2, 2023, terracotta, glaze, lustre 27 x 70 cm 6. Biji’s Ring, 2023, terracotta, glaze, gold lustre 35 x 26 cm
Hoops That Once Belonged To My Mother, 2022 Brass, terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 113 x 170 cm
Drop Earrings That Once Belonged to My Mother, 2022 Terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 125 x 163 cm
Safe Keeping 1, 2023 Terracotta, glaze, gold lustre 32 x 32 cm
Drop Earrings That Once Belonged To My Mother 2, 2022 Terracotta, glaze, lustre, chain, wire 30 x 70 cm
Dadi Ji’s Earrings 2, 2023 Terracotta, glaze, lustre 27 x 70 cm
Biji’s Ring, 2023, Terracotta, glaze, gold lustre 35 x 26 cm
MONICA RANI RUDHAR B. 1994, Sydney. AUSTRALIA EDUCATION 2021 Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors, First Class, UNSW Art & Design SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2023 What’s Mine Is Yours, Tiles Lewisham 2023 We Were Connected in a More Complicated Way Than Either of Us Could Even Begin To Understand, Powerhouse Museum, Online Commission 2022 I Cook a Lot of All These Foods, Firstdraft, Woolloomooloo 2020 Bandhan, Our Neon Foe, Leichhardt GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2023 Winter Group Show, Martin Browne Contemporary 2023 Goya, Goodspace Gallery, Chippendale 2023 Looking at Gold, Tamworth Regional Gallery 2023 Red Dot Revolt, curated by Raveena Grover and Kripa Krithivasan, Red Rattler, Marrickville 2022 Looking at Gold, commissioned by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre 2022 Second Guest Wellness, Project Space, Cement Fondu 2022 Live Dreams: Distance, produced by Performance Space with Vivid Sydney, Carriageworks 2022 With Fragile Objects Come Devotion, Goodspace Gallery, Chippendale 2022 Mediums, Prop Gallery, Ashfield 2022 Top-notch, Tiles, Lewisham 2022 Roots, Pari, Parramatta 2021 Saʊˈdɑːdə, Verge Gallery, Darlington 2021 Confabulations, Galerie Pompom, Chippendale 2020 Open Trinity Hall Gallery, Millers Point 2018 Entering the Picture, Gaffa Gallery, Sydney 2017 The Annual, UNSW Galleries, Paddington AWARDS, GRANTS AND PRIZES 2023 Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize Finalist 2023 Art Incubator grant recipient 2023 Winner, Gosford Regional Gallery Emerging Art Prize 2022 Blake Prize Finalist, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre 2021 Blake Prize Finalist, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre