Myth and Signification
Nic Narapiromkwan Foo
Sydney Jarrett
Harrison Rae
Astrid Bell
“It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.”
Myths are stories; considered and condensed, with details and perspectives omitted by a mythmaker. The ability of myth as a tool is that it can distort and change what an image or phrase signifies. It erases the complexities of human actions to create worlds without contradiction.
Roland Barthes writes in 'The Robbery of Language' that the crafting of “a world without contradiction” is an undeniable acknowledgement of the undercurrent of oppositional perspectives erased in favour of a singular vision. Boer posits that within myth there are opportunities for using counter-myth as a means to resist the erasure of other perspectives.
Myth and Signification invites four artists to approach myth and counter-myth as building blocks for crafting oppositional worlds, to contest the creation of a world without contradiction and resist the homogenisation of perspectives.
Together these works craft their own world of contradictions through myth and counter-myth. A world resisting the homogenisation of perspectives, the gendering of bodies, and the exploitation of land and labour.
Text by Harrison Rae
Images by Levent Can Kaya