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Julie Curtiss’ work often focuses on the absurdities of life and the reworkings of female archetypes, infusing figurative and highly symbolic scenes with seductive details, deadpan humour and a latent erotic charge. While often influenced by traditional Japanese woodblock prints in the making of her work, Horse Chestnut marks Curtiss’ first use of the medium.
Courtesy of The Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints
Informed by time spent in Japan, Curtiss collaborated with The Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints, Tokyo, an organisation that continues the tradition of Japanese woodcut print techniques, including the Edo-period practice of ukiyo-e. Facilitating a meticulous realisation of detail, the tactility of the hand-carved woodcut fittingly translates the complexities of Curtiss’ compositions, accentuating the conflicting tones, crisp outlines and the variety of textures characteristic of her paintings.
Horse Chestnut originates from Curtiss’ gouache on paper of the same name and continues the artist’s examination of the coded female body. Centred in this cropped composition is a suggestive view of female genitalia, taking the form of a ripening conker. In its caustic tone and uneasy confluence of implicit violence and erotic delight, Horse Chestnut questions a lineage of female objectification, summoning uncanny subtext from the intimate objectivity of the fetishist gaze.
Suggesting parallels with art-historical depictions of The Garden of Eden, the motifs in these new works serve as fertile ground for the artist’s surrealist and humorous interpretation of temptation, gender and sexuality.

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Julie Curtiss
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