2001: The Monkey Show. Installation by Elizabeth Paterson

The Monkey Show.  Installation by Elizabeth Paterson at Canberra Museum and Gallery until January 27, 2002.  Visible day or night in Gallery 4 at CMAG entrance.

    Liz Paterson has a long tradition as a fabric artist exploring the relationship in theatrical performance between the performer and her costume and set.  Often the costume might become a character in its own right.  Aspects of the costume or set then become symbolic of aspects of the character manipulated by an inner spirit - the hidden or partially hidden performer.

    In this installation we see a set peopled by South American-looking monkeys, some wearing parrot costumes a little bit like rosellas but perhaps also South American.  One wears a Father Christmas costume, appearing and disappearing down and up a colonial style plastered chimney.

    Two wear nothing - one absolutely relaxed and comfortable in an extensive armchair; the other at the window looking out and away from the scene, as if stuck on a bland island, seeking fulfilment elsewhere.

    Sailing boats cruise in through colonial French windows, airborne with clouds for sails - new arrivals expectant with ideals, perhaps.

    A series of early model utes pass the scene as if on a hillside track.  At random, one stops, for a sandwich, I wonder: maybe the insignificant driver stares at the view.

    A river flows from a second French window, raising itself up like a serpent, becoming an old-fashioned ear trumpet.  The comfortable monkey may be listening; or on the other hand may not be listening.  Who can tell?

    Trees, of no particular species, larger in the foreground, diminishing in the distance, lead into the fireplace beneath Monkey Santa's chimney.  Is this a foreboding image of a charcoal factory?

    The citation claims that "The Monkey Show alludes to Western culture's long fascination with the exotic and its relevance to the way that Australia has been perceived and how Australians perceive the world today."  Maybe it does, but whatever perceptions you have are entirely your own.  What you find in the images and what they symbolise may "allude" to bigger thoughts, and perhaps that's all you can expect from this kind of work.  It's not a grand work of art (perhaps that's one image of Australia) and it's all made of cardboard, papier mache and bits of wire (that sounds like Australia, too).

    Although I can't be sure I understand what meaning was intended, the images leave me less relaxed and comfortable than the monkey in the armchair, and feeling more like the monkey on the edge looking for something new.  See what you think.

© Frank McKone, Canberra