The Dating Show

The Dating Show

IMA at TCB

27 June–27 July 200827 Jun–27 Jul 2008

This exhibition explores the habits, language and practices of dating—the rules of romantic engagement. Mutlu Cerkez paints gouaches of messages women left on his answerphone in response to his dating profile. Robin Hely secretly video-records a date organised through a phone service, collecting solo mother Sherrie’s life story, then putting the moves on her. Grant Stevens’s video restages a generic love letter, scattering its words in a starry-starry night. Photographer Darren Sylvester shows a young woman in a face-pack, fighting aging, hanging on the telephone. David Rosetzky’s video features voiceovers—interior monologues—reflecting on the dynamics of relationships, desires, encounters, and breakups. With herRelationship Contracts, Gabrielle de Vietri takes the necessity of consent too far, imagining that even the parties in a stalker/victim relationship might sign off on it. Love is a battlefield.

The Institute of Modern Art acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the IMA now stands, the Jagera, Yuggera, Yugarapul, and Turrbal people. We offer our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first artists of this country. In the spirit of allyship, the IMA will continue to work with First Nations people to celebrate, support, and present their immense past, present, and future contribution to artistic practice and cultural expression.

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