Lapsus Calami

Curated by Eddie Peake
Artistic direction by Will Davis

Lapsus Calami is a group exhibition curated by Eddie Peake featuring works by Actress (Darren Cunningham), Bolade Banjo, Jennifer Bornstein, Woodsy Bransfield, Megan Broadmeadow, Saskia Colwell, Enej Gala, K8 Hardy, Claire Hooper, Motoko Ishibashi, Leigh Ledare, Jocelyn McGregor, Tian Mu, Harriet O’Ryan, Robert Overby, Fabian Peake, Proscenium Arch, Christina Ramberg, Jemima Stehli and Ajamu X.

Literally translated to ‘slip of the pen’, Lapsus Calami relates in this instance to artworks that are a result of laterally connected and associative modes of thinking and making, instead of predetermined or diagrammatic approaches. The selected works consider the notion of masculinity in the broadest possible sense – its permutations, fragility, falsehoods, antitheses, the areas where it collapses and may manifest as qualities that are not typically male, or arguably as definitively not male at all. It looks at representations that ostensibly compound normative ideas of what masculinity might be, as well as purposely complicating and undermining them.

Lapsus Calami acknowledges the impossibility of the term masculinity in its singular form, and instead approaches it as a vast, diverse and highly subjective spectrum which is shaped by circumstance, societal context and lived experience. It argues that the manifestation of self and identity is an arbitrary and intuitive combination of design and accident and that masculinity in itself is a mistake, a haphazard ‘slip of the pen’.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of performances and film screenings.