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Photography credit:
Tom Gilfillan & Jessica Chapman
Nabe Studios Presents:
'Pageantry' by Matt Benjamin
19.02.2022
‘Pageantry’ showcased the quiet and elaborate ways in which we express identity through ceremony, adornment and decoration. Admiration or acceptance can be achieved in solitude or in company, and our modes of achieving it can often be at odds with perceived gender roles, age restrictions and social status. Tender and contemplative to garish and flashy - ‘Pageantry’ explored how these social structures can distort, stifle and exaggerate notions of pride, preciousness and self-love.
Matt Benjamin is a visual artist and writer based on Wurundjeri woi-wurrung Country. His painting, video-work, installation and writing is made with a reverence for practice and labour - an approach informed by Benjamin’s experience in viticulture. Matt views his role in the vineyard as not dissimilar to his role within his art practice, opting for an approach of nurturing and acceptance rather than that of control and self-governance.