PRESS RELEASE ROOM 35

DANI MARTI   I am forever blowing bubbles…

Opening 6-8 PM Wednesday 30 May 2001

(1963) umbilical cord is cut. (1964) It hurts. I love playing with (1965) the fabric of my pillow between my fingers. Spent hours feeling the white textural surface. I drag the pillow around everywhere. Grandmother. Never leave the pillow alone. (1970) is knitting a white jumper for someone, (1972) thick, dense-elaborate surfaces emerging from a ball made of wool. Mesmerized I spend time admiring her work. The process, the thread, the line, and the surface. (1973) I did want to learn how to knit. (1974) Never did. (1975) Never did.  Never did. An uncontrollable passion for rope (1976). Trips down town Barcelona looking for all sorts of rope. (1977) rope turning into woven pieces. (1978) Surfaces of woven rope. Its dark (1985). A nude body lies in front of me. Tied up to the bed. (1987). I knot harder his wrists. (1988) I caress the inmobilized body by the ropes. Silence. (1996) Extruded plastic and nylon braided ropes. Ropes capturing space, defining space.  Extruded plastic turning into scourers, soft fabrics and rich surfaces.  Reflectors suspended in space, (1999) George, Linda, David, Roy.  A ritual in the making of surface-portraits emerging from an act of bondage. Felix, the ephemeral fabric, Mother, the fabric of loss (2001) Odyssey in the space. The dark smooth obelisk. Silence.

Soap foam, sperm, farts, bubbles, cleansing materials. Dani Marti’s exhibition, I am forever blowing bubbles…could be described most simply as consisting of a number of white towels hanging in regular intervals on the white cube walls – and in the case of bubbles – white floor, of ROOM 35.The idea is that each used towel has been in an intimate bodily contact with a user – skin, genitals, face, underarms – and retains the traces. We know this because the “user” is identified. Identified by their name embroidered in red italic script on the corner of towel. Further to this, underneath each towel is text listing the details of the person that used it. Name. Date. Time. City. Occupation. However beyond the bodies literal suggestions, it is amidst this finicky tribute to personal hygiene and ambiguous identifications, that Marti seeks to raise questions related to issues of pornography, innocence and fantasy. Of a ‘clean’, as opposed to ‘dirty’, erotica. There are no used knickers for sale here.

Dani Marti would like to Thank: Julie Pryor, Peter Gerigk, Phil Drummond and all the people involved in the exhibition for their time and inspiration.

Exhibition 30 May – 30 June 2001

For further information please contact Alexie Glass or Gitte Weise at Gitte Weise Gallery.

Phone/fax 02 9360 2659, weisegal@chilli.net.au

Exhibition link, ‘I am forever blowing bubbles’ 2001