(SC)OOT(ER)ING around
Su san Cohn and Eugenia Raskopoulos

An exhibition of new and existing works by Su san Cohn, craft artist and Eugenia Raskopoulos, visual artist, curated by Victoria Lynn and presented at Tarrawarra Museum of Art from 3 August–10 November 2024.

The human body wears lived experience both on its skin, and within. It expresses the cultural, sexual, racial and diverse geographic experiences of individuals. Australian artists Su san Cohn and Eugenia Raskopoulos have explored the human body, often specifically female, for decades.

Adornment has an ancient history, and its relation to the body is decorative, symbolic of gender, status, spiritual and cultural beliefs. Su san Cohn’s work considers the role of jewellery in the politics of society: as gift, symbol, memorial, and as a communication and sensory tool. Her work often responds to current issues, such as war, the plight of refugees and peace-making.

Through photography, video and neon, Eugenia Raskopoulos has used her own story of transmigration as a touchstone for a textual exploration of the body. As an artist living between two languages, she creates bodily actions and images, often interwoven with neon text, in Greek, English and binary code. Her work considers a ruptured body, one that is not easily defined, or translated, and that defies what we expect of the female form.

Each artist is interested in how our bodies express social and cultural experience. Their approach arises from their personal lived experiences and ageing bodies and does not ‘stand in’ for a broader concept of the female form. In the context of the shifting medical, technological and social implications for the human body in first world contexts, and the mistreatment of human beings across the world, they create art works that express the call for a more ethical corporeality.

While the exhibition includes several new works by each artist, it is conceived as an artistic collaboration between the two artists and the curator. It is a dialogue, one that has resulted in the final work in the exhibition, ‘Word of Mouth’, an actual collaborative installation made by Cohn and Raskopoulos.