Kay Abude is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. She has an expanded sculptural practice working in large-scale installation, photography, performance, video and silk screen printing. Abude’s work is about work itself: the value of it, the effort, the inequality and insecurity of it, especially for artists. Her recent commissions include BE CREATIVE REMAIN RESILIENT, Mural Commission, The Showroom, London, United Kingdom, 2023-24; Smoko Room, Paul Selzer Prize, Fiona and Sidney Myer Gallery, Southbank, 2023; (DON’T) BE AN ARTIST, Flash Forward – Creative Laneways Project, The Hotel Windsor, Melbourne, 2021; NEVER WORK/ STOP WORKING, NGV Triennial EXTRA, NGV International, Melbourne, 2021; and WORK WORTH DOING, La Trobe Art Institute, Bendigo, Victoria, 2020-21. Abude was a studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne from 2019 to 2022.
Mikala Dwyer and Kay Abude
Pyjamas (Costumes)
2021
Digital print on organic cotton, Rasant thread, cotton bias binding, satin bias binding, plastic buttons
Exhibited as part of Dwyer's exhibition Bird at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney from 29 July - 28 August 2021
"In this cuckoo nest, hospitality is roguishly exploited. Dwyer speaks about planning to have the gallerist and gallery staff costumed in pyjamas as harlequin performers, in a masquerade designed (with Kay Abude) for the opening night. A pyjama party? Maybe there’s a playful allusion to the Playboy mansion parties and their host Hugh Hefner’s iconic outfit. But these pyjama patterns are overprinted with behavioural commands, stage directions for playing a bird: preening, flying…dying. I suspect a mischievous—and somewhat sinister—figure is hosting this sleepover." — excerpt from Edward Colless, 'The Sandman is Coming', Art Collector magazine, July - September 2021
All photographs by Luis Power.
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