Vanessa Campi

Gushing is part of an ongoing body of work exploring the materiality of sculptural forms. My work juxtaposes the comforting vs the confronting in the form of a mixed media installation as I find myself revisiting ideas of identity, grief, and nostalgia throughout my practice.

The viewer is invited to interact with the structure, entering a canopy reminiscent of childhood fort-like structures. My sculptures are presented on the floor and hanging within the inside of the canopy. This intentional disregard for traditional gallery presentation is crucial to the viewers experience, as they ponder their own position within the work.

Themes of abjection are central to this piece as explored through the surreal, bodily nature of expanding foam organisms. They take on a life of their own, spilling out and dripping throughout their familiar lace surroundings.

I pair the theatrics of horror, evident in soft references to gore and the body, with fragile elements of the domestic. The initial process for this work began with experimentation using personal archival photographs, collage and text. This approach felt bound by literal depictions and I found my practice shifting in a desire to capture an ephemeral sense within my work. The use of materials such as textiles and beading references an interconnectedness with childhood, hobbies and feminist practices.

In combining an intuitive approach to sculpture with detailed attention to craft practices, Gushing is a reclamation of the kitsch in the white cube, with a queer approach to installation.

Image gallery