ARTS REVIEW: A punchy take on palatial Perth

‘Suburban Turrets’, Emma Buswell ·
Goolugatup Heathcote ·

Cast your mind back to 2020. Remember when local artist Emma Buswell turned Mark McGowan’s lockdown kebab remark into a knitted sweater?

Fresh from making national news with a prize-winning beaded handbag designed to look like a Coles roast chicken in its packaging, Buswell has a new exhibition entitled “Suburban Turrets”, at Goolugatup Heathcote gallery. The exhibition is presented as part of TILT, an annual site-responsive exhibition commissioned by the gallery with the City of Melville.

Turning her focus on the gallery’s upmarket neighbourhood, Buswell’s “Suburban Turrets” provides tongue-in-cheek commentary on the class tensions present in a suburb where palatial homes are maintained by workers like her father, a gardener.

Travelling through Applecross to get to the gallery itself is a precursor to the exhibition, providing on site context for the subject matter Buswell spins into her humorous hand-knitted woollen jumpers, all of which were produced this year. Like the kebab sweater, these works channel the idea of a slogan tee. Phrases are paired with playful imagery in works such as I’m a Luxury, which features a depiction of a mansion “few can afford”. Embellishing the jumper with sparkly rhinestones adds a gaudiness suggestive of new money and pretension.

That extravagance is also mocked in A Dog’s Life, in which the popular program title Better Homes and Gardens is stitched over a perfectly manicured lawn that has been ruined by dog poo, and again in the Grecian architecture in the purely white jumper How Do You Like My Columns.

Buswell not only highlights the labour involved in the upkeep of these estates but also the shielding nature of their gates and fences. The genius decision to display each jumper on a large gate structure brings to mind barriers – either keeping harder economic realities at bay or containing excess within. The Hi-Vis jumper Hi Luxury, a wordplay on the HiLux ute, may speak to the social mobility enabled by the mining sector but it’s hard to imagine a neighbour’s gates opening as an invitation.

The standing stained-glass lamps Trash Lamp #1 and The Majestic – deliberately fashioned in the style of Tiffany lamps – literally throw light on these gates, casting shadows reminiscent of a jail cell, perhaps speaking to the trappings of unchecked wealth. The papier-mache bird fashioned on the base of Trash Lamp #2 Battle with the Bin Chicken, for instance, appears to be taking the opportunity to pick through household waste. The postcode 6153 replaces the monogram in a popular Gucci pattern in 2 Fast I’m Furious, resulting in a patently ridiculous outfit emblazoned with too many luxury car emblems to count.

The showpiece of the exhibition is the tapestry-sized Delusions of Grandeur jumper, which depicts a leafy Jacaranda-lined street, the entrance to the road guarded by two stone lions. What could, at first glance, look like an inviting scene takes on a sinister tone. It’s worth visiting the exhibition for this bold statement alone.

Cleverly knitting together laughs and social critique, Buswell’s “Suburban Turrets” is punchy and refreshing.

“Suburban Turrets” continues at Goolugatup Heathcote until 15 January 2023.

Seesaw Magazine publishes reviews, news and features about the WA arts scene.