Featuring Laura Ellison, Azsa West & Valentine Freeman, with live performances by Bonnie Cowan
16 October - 8 December 2018

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This month we shake hands with strangers, rekindle friendships in silicon settings, and watch others make intimate connections within themsleves. PERFECT STRANGERS promises to be as awkward as a first date, but by the end you should be feeling as familiar as lifelong lovers.

In our STREETSPACE, Laura Ellison presents a recent collection of video encounters with her past body. Following radical gastric bypass surgery in 2017, the artist reacquaints herself with what she terms “excesses”, of both weight and skin, which carries the memory of the 100+ kg she has shed since. Ellison’s exploration of personal transformation continues in THE SALON, where luscious close-ups of fleshy pinkness offer themselves up for a kind of divine worship. On our TAXIDERMY T.V., long-time friends and collaborators Azsa West and Valentine Freeman have bridged the IRL oceans between them to create an intimate reunion on a digital desert island. Speaking of reunions, our STARVING ARTIST IN RESIDENCE Bonnie Cowan, will be staging Tuesday night performances for strangers she has met only hours before. Having met one person for coffee that morning, Cowan will be devising a performance for them based on their interaction and presenting it back to the stranger and you - the audience - that same night at The Bearded Tit.

Sure, it’ll be weird at first, but so is life, so let’s just roll with it.

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The Bearded Tit acknowledges that this exhibition takes place on Aboriginal land which was never ceded. We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of this land and pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.
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Opening Night: Tuesday 16 October, 6-8pm
With first date drinks brought to you by our friends at Philter Brewing.

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Image: Courtesy the artist