Rebecca Morton’s eerie collection of gloomy girls is supplemented with an interactive drawing board
Sarah Ciantar
Contributor
A girl stares soulfully out into passing viewers outside the Centre for Fine Arts Gallery.
Walking past the gallery through the CFA as part of my regular commute, I was stopped dead in my tracks by this animated girl with soulful eyes and a dark substance oozing from her nose. Beside the image, there was a large-scale laminated cloth reading, “Her attraction was fatal.” Many people who enter the gallery remark on experiences of being drawn in by this girl. Rebecca Morton’s series Goo Girls presents works that capture raw emotion in a grotesque portrayal.
The series was created organically, Morton explains. She says its creation began with a single image—one sketch which eventually turned into full works. One emotional girl turned into many, each with their own story. The northern wall of the gallery shows a variety of these “Goo Girl” creations, each with corresponding texts.
“I tried to make sure that the text didn’t give away too much so it can be interpretative,” Morton adds. The text tells a story, but restricting it to broad expressive statements allows the viewer to experience them on a personal level and fill in the details themselves.
A banner along the southern wall is the basis for an interactive piece where viewers are encouraged to share their stories and succumb to full immersion of the works. Bold black felt markers provide the medium to vent inner turmoil. Morton describes this work as something that “became a therapeutic bathroom stall conversation,” where people will reply to the messages with positive comments of comfort and support.
I left a part of myself behind when I wrote on the banner, expressing a trouble that affects me. When I revisited the gallery, I was deeply touched to find that someone had replied with words of empowerment and comfort directed at my original comment.
My only constructive criticism is that the other series on display in the gallery, Monochrome by Rebecca Jade, did not enhance the show for many reasons. The two series contradict one another—one features monochrome and greyscale works while the other thrives on vibrant chromatic colour schemes. In addition, I feel that Jade’s series wasn’t as fully developed in comparison to Morton’s series.
A series of three greyscale photographs of water with letters floating in them hangs along the western walls. The series is meant to spell out “cry,” however due to technical reasons, the image with the letter “y” was printed on lager paper than the other two letters. As a result of this, the letters were rearranged to fit around the larger image with the “y,” which sacrifices the meaning of the work and causes a break in the communication. The series is conceptually appealing, but it could have been better executed.
The Goo Girls series is an expression of the human element of overwhelming emotions which Morton harnesses in her works to draw empowerment and beauty in raw emotion. Her works provide a visual image to something everyone experiences on a fundamental level.
