Catherine Hourihan – Legal Tender

Artist Catherine Hourihan has drawn on her background as a multimedia dance maker in Sydney and New York for her latest visceral and evocative photographic exhibition. Entitled Legal Tender this exhibition is a photographic investigation into the value systems surrounding love and money in a post pandemic world.

Working with projected imagery and underwater photography Hourihan’s artworks juxtapose the two great motivating forces in modern society, love and money. Legal Tender allows the viewer to explore how our relationships to both of these aspects of existence has been impacted by COVID.

Hourihan uses mysterious, semi-abstract imagery which is generated by projecting images of the body onto male and female models resulting in a series of photographs that are strange, sensual and of ambiguous gender. 

With tiles such as Embrace, Obsession and Attraction, these low-key images take the viewer into a dark, beguiling underworld while evoking a sense of physical intimacy. The works contained with Legal Tender reflects on a shifting public attitude towards touch, and the nature of connection in response to a world where social distancing has become the norm.

Until Jul 2. Vandal Gallery, 16-30 Vine St, Redfern.