Genevieve Callaghan

During her Creative Arts degree at La Trobe University, Genevieve Callaghan spent her time dedicated towards developing her skills as a script-writer, film-maker and performer. Genevieve's theatre and spoken word performances include Self Cultivation (2009), Sunny Side Up (part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, 2009) and To Still My Beating Mind (2008). In 2007 she directed a short film entitled Cut Out.

Accept Object, 2010, ink print on cotton fabric, glue, mounting board, cotton thread, wooden skewer

‘Fashion object’.

For me, the phrase conjures up conflicting visions, a kind ‘wheel of fortune’ coloured with shades of human desire and revulsion; coveting, discarding, but always revolving around the ‘thing’.

I have created and replicated the image of a ‘thumbs up’ and a ‘thumbs down’, fused at the ‘pinkie’ finger, to print onto fabric or plywood (as a brooch or stand-alone artwork). From the Colosseum of ancient Rome to the gossip pages of tabloid magazines, the ‘thumbs up / thumbs down’ has been a potent action, whether it is actually given or inferred in the abstract. It has had the power to give honour and kudos, or take life and dignity.

My expression of this time-honoured image, as it grips one piece of fabric / thread / chain / lace between its opposing hands, will encompass the two basic fortunes for which a fashion object is destined; acceptance and rejection.