Thinking Business is an exhibition by the Barbara Cleveland collective that explores forms of female friendship, collaboration and artistic labour.
The project takes its title from Hannah Arendt’s description of her friendship with Mary McCarthy.
“It’s not that we think so much alike, but that we do this thinking business for and with each other,” Arendt said.
This idea of an intellectual and creative connection between women is at the centre of this project, which focuses on the 15-year working relationship between the members of Barbara Cleveland, an Australian artist collective.
Presenting five video works spanning 10 years of the collaborative’s prolific career, each work contributes to a fascinating study of humour, absurdity and feminist practices.
Thinking Business highlights the performative aspect of Barbara Cleveland’s work which brings endurance, labour and time to the exhibition, with great impact.
The exhibition is being presented as a theatrical installation and has been designed in collaboration with architect Luke Pigliacampo.
With the rise of neoliberalism and the acceleration towards individualism and precarity, this project turns towards the collective and the collaborative to consider alternative support structures and other ways of thinking and working together.
Thinking Business is a carefully curated survey of Barbara Cleveland’s work and its presentation in the main gallery at Gosford Regional Gallery will close at 4pm on Sunday, August 7.
This free event is a touring exhibition by Goulburn Regional Art Gallery and Museums & Galleries of NSW.
Primary source: Museums & Galleries of NSW