Sarina Lirosi, Ode
August 11 - September 2, Opening function Saturday August 11th, 2-5pm

"Ode" is a project that continues my investigation into notions of desire, loss and mourning. These works on paper are partly inspired by ornamental hair work and partly by ideas about beauty and repulsion. In Victorian times death was a suitable subject for polite conversation and mourning was a protracted ritual accessorised with brooches and lockets containing the deceased's hair. Such practices today, although still fascinating, are generally considered morbid and death is a taboo subject both for conversation and, importantly, for art practices.

These works are a contemporary ode to lost customs and to mortality.   


Sarina Lirosi,
2012

I heard a fly buzz - when I died -     
The stillness in the room

Was like the stillness in the air
 -     
Between the heaves of storm -

The eyes around - had wrung them dry -     
And breaths were gathering firm
For that last onset - when the king
     
Be witnessed - in the room -

I willed my keepsakes - signed away
     
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then
 it was     
There interposed a fly -

With blue - uncertain stumbling buzz -    
Between the light - and me -
And then the windows failed - and then
     
I could not see to see -

Emily Dickinson 1862

Sarina Lirosi, Fallen 2012, archival inkjet on Canson Rag Photographique, 30 x 30 cm

Sarina Lirosi, Garland 2012, archival inkjet on Canson Rag Photographique, 30 x 30 cm

Sarina Lirosi, Musca 2012, archival inkjet on Canson Rag Photographique, 30 x 30cm

Sarina Lirosi, Stem 2012, archival inkjet on Canson Rag Photographique, 30 x 30cm