Exhibition celebrating 'unbridled messiness' of womanhood opens in Canberra

Magic, witchcraft, ancient rituals and unbridled sexuality are some of the complex and multifaceted aspects of womanhood explored in the latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

The gallery says the Mother Maiden Crone exhibition creates "a cacophony of disruptive female energy", exploring how the bright and beautiful coexist with the dark and distasteful.

The exhibition contains almost 70 works by three internationally celebrated contemporary artists, including two-time Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton.

Barton's extravagant works were an early inspiration for exhibition co-artist Emily Hunt, whose practice embraces magic and folklore.

Works by artist Jess Johnson round out the exhibition, with her colourful and geometric style showcasing her science fiction-inspired world.

Mother Maiden Crone is the first time the three have had their work displayed together.

'The unbridled messiness of femaleness'

Gallery director Bree Pickering said that across the exhibition, craft and the handmade underpinned conceptual and spiritual reckonings with age-old stereotypes.

"Maiden Mother Crone is an exhibition that is both intricate and intimate, as well as maximalist and expansive," Ms Pickering said.

"Each of these artists had a very defined practice, and you'll see that they have their own visual language.

"There's drawing, painting, textiles, ceramics, jewellery, sculpture, and video; and they sit within discreet presentations by each artist, but those presentations sort of blend together in an exhibition that revels in the unbridled messiness of femaleness."

The crone as a powerful force for change

For Hunt, the driving force of her work is "the question of magic", with the figure of the crone frequently appearing.

"I think as a mature artist now, I'm in a position where I can put my credibility on the line and say, 'Magic is real, and magic works,' so I find that's kind of at the core of everything I do," Hunt said.

"The figure of the witch, or the crone, is — I think — a figure for redemption.

"Often old women are invisible in society, but there's an inherent kind of wisdom and power that is held in this position, and I often focus on this crone figure in my work as a kind of powerful force that can also create change."

Johnson approaches her similarly maximalist practice through the lens of a science fiction world she has been drawing for over a decade.

She said her works in the exhibition took archetypes from history and mythology alongside modern ones and re-imagined them within her own universe.

"On the surface it's quite geometric and brightly coloured and really detailed, and so I think it's almost like that's the candy-coloured coating that people can access into these deeper, more subversive ideas underneath the work," Johnson said.

"I think it's quite accessible for people because it's very graphic and detailed, and there are these hints of story and narration and mythology and symbology in it.

"Power, and control, and systems of authority and how power is exerted on a population, those are running themes in my work."

Interrogating inherited roles of womanhood

Gallery senior curator Serena Bentley said she was incredibly moved seeing the completed exhibition for the first time.

"We've used the tropes of the maiden, the mother, and the crone as a means of interrogating these inherited roles of womanhood, and how we chose to inhabit them," she said.

"But also, how we chose to tear them apart.

"Maiden Mother Crone celebrates women who defy easy categorisation while revealing and dismantling the contradictions that shape both lived and imagined experiences of womanhood."

Hunt said she hoped people attending the unapologetic and "deeply uncynical" exhibition would go in with an open mind.

"I do care about my audience, but it's not for everybody," she said.

"Magic isn't for everybody. Feminine ornamentation, decoration, isn't for everybody.

"But I think the work, this particular exhibition, is so overwhelming and so powerful and so open and so generous that people will react very strongly to it.

"Everyone does have a little bit of an open mind to the subjects that are in this show.

"It's kind of on the periphery, but we're bringing it a little bit to the front and centre, and bringing it to attention."

The Mother Maiden Crone exhibition is on display at the National Portrait Gallery until May 2027.