Exquisite Bodies | Bruno Booth

Exquisite Bodies | Bruno Booth

Gallery 09 is dedicated to interactive, all ages, artist-led exhibitions.

Exquisite Bodies is a multi-sensory participatory exhibition inviting audiences of all ages and abilities to contribute to an installation of monumental figurative sculptures that morph and change in unexpected ways.

Developed in collaboration with disabled artist Bruno Booth, the exhibition interrupts preconceived perceptions of disability and normativity creating space for slow-play, complex conversations, experimentation and contemplation. The materials and concepts adapt so that young children, teens, artists, adults and those with no prior arts experience can have an equally valued and meaningful experience.

Interrogating and expanding ideas of beauty, mobility and ability, this interactive exhibition draws on the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, as an open-ended celebration of perceived error, surprise, and wide-ranging lived experience.

Exquisite Bodies challenges us to reshape our thinking and recognise ways that diversely abled bodies have to navigate a world that is uncomfortable by design, at the same time celebrating the beauty and value of differently expressed ability.

Please note: this exhibition can reach capacity at times and we may ask you to explore the Gallery and return later.

Related Information

FREE

Share

@artgallerywa
#artgallerywa

Quiet hour

A time for rest and slow play

In G09 3pm-4pm daily

This time of rest and slow play is for everyone needing quieter spaces, lower sensory environments, and relaxation.

Notice sounds and sensations, listen to your heart beat, watch the movement of the clouds, feel your breath rising and falling.

 

 

Bruno Booth Exquisite Bodies AGWA installation view
Bruno Booth Exquisite Bodies. Installation view, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, 2023. Photo: Louise Coghill.

About the artist

Bruno has used a wheelchair for most of his life, interrupted by a short and unsuccessful career as an amateur stilt walker when he used prosthetic legs as a child. In his memory these leather and metal devices would not have been out of place on the set of some dystopian, apocalyptic epic – not in a cool and attractive Fury Road sort of way, more like the zombies in the original Walking Dead. The experience of wearing restrictive equipment left him with a dislike of tight fitting clothing, a love of speed and a need to reach over his head in supermarkets – as a child he made the decision to use a wheelchair as his primary mode of transport – and he’s never looked back (probably because he’s too busy looking out for sand pits on dark footpaths).

Having a disability has been a constant background hum throughout Bruno’s life. Kind of like a social tinnitus – you know it’s there but you try not to talk about it. It was only when he started to call himself an artist, without cringing too much, that he began to engage critically with what it meant to be categorised as disabled.

I can't hide the fact that I have what society refers to as a disability. Instead, I concentrate on shaping the perceptions people have of what it means to be a disabled person. Like any other characteristic that defines a nuanced personality, disability can have positive and negative aspects. Disability is a spectrum of experiences not an automatic negation of a person's ability, value or potential.

Bruno Booth

Exquisite Bodies | Virtual Gallery

 
X

 

Act Belong Commit Healthway logos

Gallery 09 supported by Healthway promoting Act Belong Commit
Art connects us to ourselves, each other and our communities, helping to create a healthy Western Australia
The Exquisite Bodies interactive sculptures are made possible with the support of AGWA’s Next Collective

 

Stan Perron logo

Exquisite Bodies is supported by The Stan Perron Charitable Foundation

On Saturday 27 August, the Gallery is open 10am-3pm only as we prepare for the AGWA Foundation Gala supporting women in the arts. Some exhibition access will be disrupted with two Tracks We Share ground floor galleries closed. AGWA Rooftop bar will be closed, reopening at 2pm Sunday. Details