Slide Not Sliding

Cross-institution exhibition featuring photography and moving image works by undergraduate students at UNSW Art Design and Architecture, Sydney; and the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne.

AD Space
8-24 September, 2022

Images by Lucy Teauge from her work “I know you am but what am I?” (2021)



Lana Lusina (LL): How did the initial idea emerge for your work ’I know you are but what am I?’ (2021), and how did it evolve? 

Lucy Teague (LT): At the time I was reading and thinking a lot about the control of women’s bodies on the screen and in media, and had a particular interest in the aesthetics of post-cyber feminism and working with video. I was researching performance and body art, specifically through the work of Amelia Jones and was interested in how women have used their bodies and performed as a means of social critique. I was reading the works of Donna Harroway and Laura Mulvey alongside Jones. I was also influenced by the works of Hito Stereyl, Pipilotti Rist and Shigeko Kubota and how they were using video and the body. 

LL: What were your intentions during the creation of this artwork, and what do you hope to give to the audience?

LT: In the creation of the work I wanted to explore ideas of voyeurism, particularly in relation to the female body. In the work I aimed to use technology as a method to critique heteropatriarchal biases of the screen employing surrealism and abstraction as a method of exploring horror and dream-like imagery. I often use abstraction and surreal imagery as a strategy to explore ideas beyond realism and create a space that allows for our thinking to be challenged, so I hope to have created this space for the audience to consider these ideas.

LL: How connected are you to the artwork now, compared to when you were deep in the process of creating it?

LT: I think my art style has changed and evolved since the work, but I still feel a strong connection to the theorists and artists I was exploring at the time, as well as an interest in experimental video art. A lot of my work these days is expressed through the mediums of video and photography, and I think it was grounded through a lot of my earlier work, including this particular video. The work taught me a lot about different editing techniques and post-production. 

LL: Technical, personal or otherwise, were there any difficulties during the creation of this work, and if there were, how did you go about resolving them? 

LT: I was making the work in the middle of lockdown! So without access to studios and different equipment it was very much a make-do situation at home, especially when recording and working with chroma keying and green screens. I ended up having to source green fabric and experiment with my own make-shift lighting set up at home which was quite a tedious process but a good learning experience, and encouraging that I could still produce what I did under those circumstances.

LL: What pushes and inspires you to keep making art?

LT: I think art is a really powerful medium where you can express yourself and your beliefs and ultimately tell a story. It has huge potential as an exploration of the social world, as well as a critique on it. The people around me, my friends and family, and what is happening in the world inspires my own work as well as the different texts, films and artworks that I am consuming.

LL: If you could tell your younger self anything, what would it be? 

LT: I think I would tell my younger self to follow your intuition, and don’t feel like you have to follow other’s expectations, especially when they feel wrong! 

LL: What themes and mediums are you planning to explore in your future work?

LT: At the moment as I’m exploring affect and feeling and the sticky impressions we leave on one another, so I think my future work will continue to be informed by these ideas and continue to interact with affect as well as feminist and queer theory. I’ve also been experimenting with installation and sound a lot more, so I definitely see them becoming larger parts of my practice in the future.