• Artist: Jacqui Stockdale

Synopsis

Such Is Now - Isolation Diorama Project 2020 is an installation by Australian contemporary artist, Jacqui Stockdale. It is a peep show for all ages, to be viewed through two large eyes and a Ned Kelly Helmet painted on the window of a costume shop.

As a direct response to lockdown in Melbourne in March this year Stockdale started making miniature versions of her recent solo exhibition based on the re-telling of the Ned Kelly myth. She placed them in hand made dioramas based on Mexican folk art.

The miniature artworks will be interchanged throughout the event so you can revisit. You may see Ned Kelly’s lover about to give birth, a skeleton with sparkles on his syphilis or a ghost horse called Music.

Stockdale has a history of entertaining her audiences in sideshow style performances such as the jaw dropping, breast-feeding twin act, Madonna’s Milk - A Visitation and The Boho Show. Her work has featured in the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art and the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Warning: Contains some nudity, some infrequent/low pressure audience interaction

Reviews

"Stockdale relishes the roles of director, sound, costume and set designer; the puppet master for a cast of outcasts. Her costumes, masks and props have been described as “portals to the other side”.
Artist Profile 2019

“You don’t get much more Australian than this. Ned Kelly’s girlfriend, riding Phar Lap, which has just deposited a pile of golden nuggets”. The Age, 2020