ON entering Gallery Two at the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, you are immediately drawn toward a playful and comedic circle of sculptures. Antlers, a wave, a chicken drumstick and jewels adorn Jud Wimhurst’s helmets; revealing the mind’s anxieties by displaying them on their shiny surfaces. These helmets are like sentinels protecting the loud open mouth standing at their centre.
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While Wimhurst’s slick sculptures are seductive and hold all of the appeal of fast-food branding, there is something disturbing beneath their surfaces.
They are simultaneously desirable and repellent. The earlier works display bravado and present an illusion of safety, whereas the more recent battle-scarred “gunmasks” seem to have been thrust upon their wearers. Behind these bone-like utilitarian crusts, children are forced to protect themselves. PROTECTION runs until February 21.
