"Luckily, you get over things as quickly as it takes you to blow up—you just love living life in the fast lane!"—Cosmopolitan
According to the gay science of astrology, an Aries Moon sign suggests that one feels with passion and headstrong reactivity. Following some bad news (and perennially in the style of his Moon sign) Hamish McIntosh conceived Moon in Aries in response to Jeff Koons' Venus 2018-2020. In this work, Hamish played with Koons’ use of the mirror by offering a matte, human contrast. This 2021 work for two dancers was commissioned by and performed for the NGV's Triennial EXTRA festival. Nodding to Koons' use of reflective surfaces, as well as his storied references to art history and commercial kitsch, this one-hour durational work involved two dancers ritualistically entering a room, pausing in an embrace, then exiting in a stylised, feminine transit. Dressed in simple pink and green dresses—chosen to cheekily parody another of Koons' sculptures—this piece invited the audience’s gaze in a shared transformation, wherein the dancers' bodies, like the Venus herself, were re-imagined as mirrored and brilliant.
Commissioned By: NGV w/ the University of Melbourne | Season: January-February 2021, NGV International, Melbourne | Performers: Valentina Dillon and Emily Laursen
C. Tim Carrafa courtesy of NGV, 2021
C. Tim Carrafa courtesy of NGV, 2021
C. Tim Carrafa courtesy of NGV, 2021
C. Tim Carrafa courtesy of NGV, 2021
