Published
20-1-2026
Type of Work
Creative Work - Visual artwork
Advisors and Contributors
Colin Webber (soundtrack) Ugo Anniballi (text)
Abstract
The installation plays with the covering and uncovering of the saint’s body and the collision of the erotic and ecstatic in Christian iconography. Saints have always been active images –used to vividly imagine sacred narratives, to awaken emotions of love and devotion. However, the role of beauty, the body and the sensuous in this process is complex. In the history of art, we witness a desire to tread what Maya Corry calls the “line between licit and illicit loveliness,” which she acknowledges “was often so thin as to be indistinguishable”. Corry also shows that the will to embrace and navigate this dialectic was strong, which is why the history of art is filled with comely saints. So, to actively rework saintly imagery, to try to construct new meaning from these historic patterns, is to participate in this long tradition of calling sensuous mystery into our lives in and through bodies.
Citation
O'Donnell, M. (2026) These bodies are wild and shimmering [Exhibition] Sol Gallery, Melbourne, 20 January - 1 February
Link to Published Work
https://solgallery.com.au/events/midsumma-show