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  More day than Beyonce, 2016

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  'More day than Beyonce', installation image, 2016

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  'More day than Beyonce', installation image, 2016

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  'More day than Beyonce', installation image, 2016

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  'More day than Beyonce', installation image, 2016

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  'More day than Beyonce', installation image, 2016

JAMIE O'CONNELL, MORE DAY THAN BEYONCE
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Exhibition Dates: 5 February–5 March 2016
Exhibition Opening: Friday 5 February, 6–8pm

Artist talk: Saturday 27 February at 1pm

Gertrude Contemporary was pleased to present the first, major solo exhibition by Melbourne artist Jamie O’Connell.

O’Connell’s work explores complex ideas around temporalities, relating to such themes as uncharted territories, geography and astrology, among others. Incorporating elements of the common vernacular and pop culture, and using linguistic word play as a conceptual impulse, O’Connell’s work reflects on the experience of time and physical space within the context of late capitalism.

More day than Beyonce is an ongoing project that sets out to describe three different public actions, articulated through a perverse form of archaeology and symbology. These actions explicitly examine the visibility of time, work, leisure and occupation. The first of these events took place upon Gertrude Street: a measure of bodies, ushered in by the recent appearance of motivational coffee mugs, bearing the slogan: You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce.

Jamie O’Connell has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts, and has just completed his Fine Arts Honours with Monash Art Design and Architecture, receiving the Bearbrass award for his graduate exhibition work. In 2014, Jamie was the recipient of the Roger Kemp Memorial Award and the Stella Dilger Award, as well as being granted a position in the 2014 India Global Atelier, funded by Asialink. In 2016, Jamie will also be undertaking a solo project with Neon Parc, Melbourne.

Supported by the Sainsbury Sculpture Grant, established in memory of the late Madeline Olive Taylor through her estate and administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA).

A full media release is available here.

Art historian Rex Butler wrote a response to the exhibition, available here.