Nathan Beard
About the work
Limp-wristed Gesture (ii) sees the artist’s hands cast in fleshy silicone as they perform a floral gesture from traditional Thai dance. Embellished with repurposed cultural objects, including garlands made from hand-stitched monks’ robes, the work draws upon spiritual totems of cultural pride and expression.
The fleshy limpness of Beard’s sculptures are underpinned by his childhood feelings of shame and anxiety inherent in the ‘authentic’ performance of his Thai heritage through traditional hand gestures. Beard reframes this cultural otherness through his queerness; particularly the adolescent self-consciousness around projecting effeminacy through expressive or limp-wristed hand gestures. The work reclaims this precariousness through evocative excess.
Images
About the artist
Nathan Beard is a multidisciplinary artist who draws from his Australian-Thai heritage to unpack the porous nature of culture and memory. In exploring associations of ‘Thainess’ through archives, family history and popular media, Beard’s work reveals the slippery range of influences which shape identity.
Recent exhibition highlights include A Moment in Extended Crisis, UTS Gallery (2024) and A Puzzlement, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (2023) and Perth Institute of Contemporary Art (2022). He is currently participating in the Gertrude Studio Program (2023-25). He is represented by sweet pea, Boorloo/Perth, and FUTURES, Naarm/Melbourne.
- Limp-wristed Gesture (ii)
- 2020
- Sculpture