Excess Baggage Curated by Claudia Arozqueta

Gina Arizpe, Elena Astashova, Irina Birger, Claire Harris, Elena Kovylina
Opening Preview: Tuesday 9 June, 5.30pm

The Blue Oyster is pleased to present Excess Baggage, an exhibition of video works by five female artists from Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Russia. Curated by Claudia Arozqueta, Excess Baggage explores and tests notions of displacement, challenge and endurance that are often the vector that shapes and forges the life of any given woman around the world.

Elena Kovylina's action refers to the female fortitude required for sustaining, in a very literal way, a home. Somehow contrasting, is the cathartic video by Wellington-based artist Claire Harris, a carefully staged lament of nostalgia for a place left behind that now haunts her as an improbable source of longing. Dutch artist Irina Birger, through a video-photographic journey, narrates the vicissitudes that one must overcome to succeed the most recurrent challenges of modern society: mobility and nomadism. In this same manner, Elena Astashova's work pushes the boundaries of the social imagery of migrants and airports. Finally, Mexican artist Gina Arizpe’s journey across a never ending desert shows us how, regardless of the difficulties or apparent futility inherent to all voyages, our steps are more an inner imprint than a trace to be tracked.