Keely Varmalis

Honours

The nameless waters know all my secrets. In their depths, unspoken pain resonates. My sculptures inhabit the language of fluidity as a method of formlessness. Bachelard posits that any being devoted to water is a being constantly in flux, and consequently, perpetually dying. Through my work I embody instability as a protest to the oppressive violence of patriarchal standards and their intolerance of the other. I engage with worlds that are plastic, expanding and contracting around the body in a reciprocal exchange. The Latin origins of collapse express the ineffable and unobservable descent: ‘together to slip’. Moving with these poetics, I navigate the weight of grief upon the body, using materials that are malleable, fragile and breakable, such as glass and copper.

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Enquiries

kpvarmalis@icloud.com

Keely Varmalis, The Nameless Waters, glass, steel and water, dimensions variable, 2022.

Keely Varmalis, The Nameless Waters, glass, steel and water, dimensions variable, 2022.

Keely Varmalis, Emerald Tablet, copper, glass, chain and projection, dimensions variable, 2022. Documentation by Evelyn Pohl.

Keely Varmalis, De-Posing, performance still, 2022. Choreography and documentation by Victoria Chiu.

Keely Varmalis, Twin Flame performing for Justene Williams, I found something inside which I didn’t know was there, 2022, photographed by Lucy Foster, Project8 Gallery, Melbourne.

Keely Varmalis, Twin Flame performing Flag Rewilding by Lea Rose, for Bodies Exhibition, photographed by Ezz Monem at Fiona and Sydney Myer Gallery, Melbourne.

Keely Varmalis, Ineffability, 2022, glass, copper, steel, silk, water, chain, wire, glass beads, installation spans 2.5 x 5 x 2.7 m, with 15 minute performance Flight of the Oneiroi, performed by Twin Flame, photographed by Lucy Foster.

Keely Varmalis, Ineffability (detail), 2022, glass, copper, steel, silk, water, chain, wire, glass beads, installation spans 2.5 x 5 x 2.7 m, with 15 minute performance Flight of the Oneiroi, performed by Twin Flame, photographed by Lucy Foster.

Arthur Nyakuengama

Caeylen Fenelon-Norris

Christy Chudosnik

Devika Bilimoria

Eleanor Newbound

Jackson Mclaren

Mardi Denham-Roberts

Thomas Retallack

Veronica Charmont

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which our campus is situated, the people of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung, who have created art, made music and told their stories here for thousands of generations. We also acknowledge and extend our respect to the Traditional Owners of all lands on which our work is viewed, shared and enjoyed, and to all Elders, past, present and emerging.

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