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Looking Thrice with Natalya Hughes

Olivia Nolan-Bennett
Write About Art 6
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Art and the broader culture are inextricably linked, because artists are products of their time, and therefore bring their own cultural experience to any given work of art. German philosopher, Georg W.F. Hegel, first alluded to this connection in his early 19th century Lectures on the Philosophy of History, in which he stated ‘no man can surpass his own time, for the spirit of his time is also his own spirit’ (Hegel, 1837). Sydney-based artist Natalya Hughes attempts to define the zeitgeist of contemporary feminism in her exhibition, ‘Looking Thrice’, (Milani Gallery, 23 May–14 June 2014). But what does Hughes bring to the theme of feminism in works such as, Looking Cute (2013), Looking Weighed Down (Again) (2013) and When the Carpets Match the Curtains (2012)?

In ‘Looking Thrice’ Hughes seeks to address feminist themes, specifically how gender is constructed in and through representation. She exposes her concern about ‘the way in which femininity is often associated with a decorative aesthetic and with excess … neither of which’, she says, ‘… are portrayed in a positive light within art history’ (Hughes, 2014). These three words, ‘femininity’, ‘decorative’ and ‘excess’ are a challenge to Hughes, and through her work she attempts to revalue them, turning each negative into a positive, in a highly contemporary, androgynous pattern language. She asks what is natural, what is constructed, who these representations benefit and who they let down.

Widely recognised as the last great master of Ukiyo-e woodblock printing, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi would appear to be the most influential artist on Hughes’s work in this exhibition, although the artist herself does not state this. Yoshitoshi’s Fūzoku Sanjūnisō (1888), a set... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline

Natalya Hughes, Looking Cute, 2013.

Natalya Hughes, Looking Cute, 2013. Acrylic on plywood, 140 x 240cm. Photograph Jessica Maurer. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane. 

Natalya Hughes, When the Carpets Match the Curtains, 2012.

Natalya Hughes, When the Carpets Match the Curtains, 2012. Acrylic on marine ply, custom carpet, silk, polyester fabric, cotton rope, pillow stuffing, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.