Social duty, social consciousness, socialist riddles…and hummingbirds. Ric Spencer visits some of Perth’s latest visual arts exhibitions.

[...] There is a cherub of a show at the Free Range Gallery in Hay Street, Subiaco. Hummingbird Lives is the first solo effort for Jodi Bassett. The exhibition is a cascade of small works, overlaid variously by hammering, drilling and weaving. Each depicts a hummingbird, caught in different stages of flight.

Bassett could not be at the opening because she is bed-bound with myalgic encephalomyelitis, a debilitating illness that manifests symptoms based on neurological, cardiac, immunological and endocrinological dysfunction. She can’t sit up for too long so the fact that she has managed to put this show together lying down is astounding. She has chosen the hummingbird as her proxy and also as a metaphor for her relationship with her illness.

It’s easy to overdo a metaphor, or even simply to miss with it, but in this case it works well. These hummingbirds are meticulously painted, treated with love. They are controlled-but they break out, venting their frustration at every opportune time. They are both the artist and the illness.

I couldn’t help but think of Matisse’s bed-bound later works while viewing Hummingbird Lives. Matisse’s cut-outs give me that feeling of insight into the personal nature of the artist as an organic entity, dealing with both fragility and strength.

I left Hummingbird Lives in adoration of Bassett and the relationship she has with her illness. This exhibition speaks of respect, awe, containment and hatred. This is a critical and intensely personal show and I felt very humble viewing it.

(Note: Two seperate reviews about two other exhibitions - which were featured before the 'Hummingbird Lives' review in the original article - have been omitted from this text)

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