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Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH Exhibition Kit

Installation view of artist's commission WORD MADE FLESH
Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Commissioned by ACCA and supported by Carriageworks, Sydney. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide; and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis.
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Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH is a solo exhibition that encompasses the full scope of Paul Yore’s multimedia art practice, including appliquéd quilts and needlework, banners and pendants, collage and assemblage, and a newly commissioned large-scale mixed media installation. The exhibition is structured around five rooms, each presenting one of five themed bodies of work: Signs; Embodiment; Manifesto; The Horizon; and Word Made Flesh. 

The exhibition is constructed as a gesamtkunstwerk (The German term that roughly translates to ‘total work of art’ and describes an artwork, exhibition or performance where multiple different art forms are combined to create a single cohesive whole).The artist has recast an array of found images, materials and texts into works that reference histories of religious art, ritual, queer identity, pop-culture and neo-liberalism (a political approach that champions free market capitalism and supports the practices of privatisation and deregulation) amongst other themes. 

Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH includes both new and existing artworks, and charts the development of two key trajectories, the first being textile works and the second expansive, hyper-colourful installations.

Curator: Max Delany, in collaboration with Paul Yore and Devon Ackermann.

  1. Introduction
  2. About the Artist
  3. Key artworks
    1. Paul Yore, NOTHING IS REAL 2016
    2. Paul Yore, The Darkest Secret of Your Heart 2016
    3. Paul Yore, WORD MADE FLESH 2022
  4. Support Material
  5. For Teachers


How to use this kit

This exhibition kit has been written by ACCA Education to support learning alongside Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH. Three artworks from the exhibition have been highlighted, with discussion questions to prompt thinking and discussion with students. Senior Secondary activities, mapped to the Victorian and Australian Curriculum, can be found in the section For Teachers. VCE students and teachers can view Support Material for further reading.

Link to wall labels

About the artist

Paul Yore

Paul Yore was born in Naarm/Melbourne in 1987 and lives and works on Gunaikurnai Country in Gippsland, Victoria. Yore completed an undergraduate degree that incorporated painting, archaeology and anthropology at Monash University. Yore’s work draws upon contemporary and historical culture through the masses of material (objects, texts and images) it generates. While much of Yore’s work references prominent elements of popular culture, such as pop music stars, he is also influenced by older traditions and histories, such as Catholicism and its associated teachings, stories, rituals and iconography (meaning the traditional or conventional images or symbols associated with a subject, especially a religious or legendary subject). 

​​Yore has exhibited prolifically in Australia and internationally since the early 2000s. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include SEEING IS BELIEVING BUT FEELING IS THE TRUTH, Rising, Golden Square, Melbourne, 2022; Let Them Eat Cake, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2021; and Let the World Burn, Textile Art Museum Australia, Ararat, 2019;

Paul Yore is represented by Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, and STATION, Sydney and Melbourne.

Key Artworks

NOTHING IS REAL 2016
29.0 x 48.0 cm

Wool, needlepoint.
Private collection Melbourne

This small needlepoint is reminiscent of traditional needlework samplers. Hand stitched by Yore NOTHING IS REAL 2016 features the slogan-like text surrounded by a rainbow of colours in geometric patterns with star symbols in each corner of the work. This work introduces the key role of language and linguistic play in the artist’s practice and is an example of a smaller/domestic scale artwork, more prominent in Yore’s earlier artworks. Many of the phrases Yore has embroidered are selected from quotes and social media rather than personal mantras.

The artwork’s small scale makes reference to the Victorian era through its use of needlepoint, the embrace of slow craft by the Arts and Craft movement, as well as more recent art and social movements, such as the use of textiles and embroidery by feminist and queer artists.

The artwork is displayed in the first gallery room of the exhibition under the title of SIGNS. Painted in warm yellow, this room features a grouping of small needle-point works made over the past decade attesting to Yore’s interest in labour-intensive craft and decorative art practices.

Discussion Questions

  • What medium has the artist used to make this artwork?
  • Why do you think the artist is using text in this artwork as well as pictures?
  • Would you describe this artwork as art or craft? Why?
  • Many of these slogans can have double meanings. What are the various ways you can interpret the text NOTHING IS REAL’? Prompt: Is the artist referring to reality, to our understanding of societal rules or gender etc.

Darkest Secret of Your Heart 2016
240.0 cm x 391.0cm


Mixed media, textile appliqué comprising found materials, reclaimed fabrics, wool, beads, sequins, button. Collection of Sishang Art Museum, Beijing

The Darkest Secret of your Heart 2016 shows the development of Yore’s textile practice, beginning with small, embroidered works through to this large-scale appliquéd quilt (Appliqué is a sewing technique which layers fabric patches on a base fabric). These patches are hand or machine stitched together. Through this process Yore demonstrates a playful approach to collaging with fabric, colours, subjects and materials where ornament, politics and decoration sit side by side. In this artwork we see images and text collaged together to create a loaded vocabulary of terms and symbols relating to art and politics as well as religion and advertising. Yore draws on the traditions of classical Greek art, decorative Flemish and French tapestries, text, pop-culture, cartoons, psychedelia, as well as narrative and history painting. 

Yore has chosen to create this work in a rectangular panoramic format which is often used in historic landscape paintings. He combines images of Australian colonial history, with parliament house, the royal family, Australian animals such as koalas and kangaroos. These images contrast strongly with cartoons, pop stars, comic book heroes and slogans. Though many of these images have been taken from other sources and appear comical, the artist is using an assortment of bold, bright and contrasting colours as well as humour as a tool to critique Australia’s colonial history. The title of the artwork The Darkest Secret of Your Heart also indicates the artist’s deeper concerns regarding the themes in the work. 

Within the exhibition, this work is positioned in Room 4, titled HORIZON. It is  a dark purple room, a colour often associated with religion and royalty.

This work has some similarities in composition and themes to Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1480-1505.

Discussion Questions

  • What type of artwork is this? What would you call it? 
  • Can you recognise any of the images in this artwork?
  • What do you think or feel the artist is trying to communicate in this artwork by referencing images of the First Fleet and King Henry the VIII?  
  • Can you think of any historical artworks that the artist may have referenced in the creation of this artwork?
Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, installation view, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne. Commissioned by ACCA and supported by Carriageworks, Sydney. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide; and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney. Photograph: Andrew Curtis.

WORD MADE FLESH 2022

Mixed media installation comprising plastic flooring system, hearse, geodesic dome, industrial shelving system, DVD players, programmed LED scrollers, LED light stripping, LED neon light, video files, found images, animated GIFs, found and printed PVC banners, cardboard, wire mesh, reflective wall insulation, mirrored Perspex, mannequins, plinths, vending machine, taxidermied fawn, temporary fencing, barbed wire, corflute signs, reclaimed timber, tree branches, driftwood, pine wood, MDF, chipboard, found wooden crates, nuts, bolts, screws, nails, tacks, upholstery pins, hooks, eyelets, cable- ties, springs, electrical tape, gaffer tape, rope, chain, wool, cotton thread, string, twine, liquid nails, mistinted house paint, acrylic, enamel, resin, nail-polish, found crocheted blankets, wigs, fabric remnants, used clothing, fringing, fairy lights, motorised disco ball, turntables, monitors, extension cords, power boards, water, found text, quotations, tyres, haybales, toilet paper, canned baked beans, water bottles, plastic tables, dildos, bicycle wheel, milk-crates, plastic play pool, aquarium water pumps, PVC piping, garden irrigation connections, toy xylophones, toy bells, toy tambourines, toy organs, metal bowls, feathers, stones, markers, pencils, plastic flowers, plastic toys, seashells, bottle tops, sea- glass, found fragments of plastic, banksia pods, plastic beads, glass beds, wooden beads, sequins, rhinestones, glitter, second-hand and broken jewellery, smashed mirror fragments, glass tiles, broken crockery, aluminium cans, miscellaneous found objects ambient music and sound, and original music created on GarageBand.

602.5 x 1938.5 x 717.5 cm (overall)
Commissioned by the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, and supported by Carriageworks, Sydney. Courtesy the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide, and STATION, Melbourne and Sydney.

A new commission made for the exhibition, WORD MADE FLESH is an architecturally scaled gesamtkunstwerk, or combined work of art, composed of mixed media sculpture, found objects and prefabricated structures. It includes a tower of LED and video screens emblazoned with advertising; an illuminated geodesic dome clad in textiles and painted slogans; and a mosaic encrusted hearse. This immersive installation imagines a queer alternative reality, erected from the wasteland of the Anthropocene (the accumulative impact of humans on earth).

The installation has an immersive, carnivalesque atmosphere which is heightened by video works, featuring montages of found images, animated GIFs, found videos, 3D animation and texts stuck in endless loops. It is further amplified by the jarring clanging and chiming of bells, organs, tambourines and xylophones, with the original musical composition created in GarageBand, creating a pulsing, riotous, ambient musicality, a mystical mix of new age music, experimental sound and ‘bad gay techno’.

Additionally the architectural forms are set upon a tiled, polychromatic floor which acts to frame the kaleidoscopic assemblages of illuminated junk and kinetic sculptures, water fountains, mannequins and vending machines, barbed wire and temporary fencing. The work mimics the expansive, excess materiality and information that fills our world both physically and digitally.

Discussion Questions

  • What type of artwork is it? 
  • What do you think the artist is trying to communicate to an audience with an artwork like this? 
  • What role do you think aesthetics and beauty play in Paul Yore’s artwork?
  • If this work was positioned outside the gallery context or in an urban setting how would it change your interpretation of the artwork? Prompt: Would you think it was art or a gaming centre? How does the context of contemporary art affect its meaning?

Support Material

 

 

 

For Teachers

Secondary activities

(Senior Secondary)


Activity 1: Collage with coloured paper and newspaper text

A warm up activity to get students thinking about collage and the way text changes an artwork and how block shapes and text can represent form. Relevant in understanding how textile patterns and quilts are developed and designed. Students may like to use a reference image such as the examples below or work from their imaginations. Eg: One Direction poster, pop group, current movie or TV show etc.

  •  Using an A3 piece of paper (white or plain)  as a base layer, select brightly-colored pieces of paper and sections from the newspaper. These can be randomly selected or deliberately chosen to convey a message.
  • Using a tearing technique (rather than scissors) tear sections of the paper into shapes to represent the forms, light, shade and figures in the artwork. Tearing creates a line which is soft and similar to that of fabric.
  • Laying the colour pieces on the base layer, glue them together. You may choose to overlap sections of the paper.
  • Continue to add layers of colour and text to your artwork until you feel you have reached a resolution. 
  • This work can then be turned into a 3 dimensional work by folding and  shaping the paper with the same tearing technique. Use a stapler to join sections.
  • There is potential here to join students’ work to another person’s to make it a larger collaborative artwork.


Activity 2: Fabric assemblage

The focus for this activity is on using words, symbols and colour to create a fabric artwork inspired by the works of Paul Yore. Students will choose words and fabrics which reflect their interest and collage them together using glue, pins, wool and sewing needles. 

Students will build new skills in working with textile materials, dexterity with fine motor skills through basic stitching techniques and develop a knowledge of collage, assemblage and soft sculpture.

We recommend using a combination of printed and plain recycled clothing or found fabrics in the bright colour pallet of Paul Yore. This includes bright pink, yellow, orange, green and purple. With forward planning students may bring in their own printed fabrics such as old t-shirts to contribute to their work of art. Old tea towels would also work well.

If your school has the materials and infrastructure there is the potential to turn the artwork into larger sculptural forms using sewing machines and filling them with stuffing. 


Method:

  • Cut an A3 size base layer of fabric, you may like to use a heavier fabric such as hessian for this.
  • Students choose one word they would like to use in their artwork and cut the letters out in another contrasting fabric. We suggest cutting large size letters as this makes it easier to stitch to the fabric and less fiddly. We suggest using one word as this exemplifies how a word taken out of context changes its meaning and can become an object rather than just text in their collage.
  • Students select 3-5 symbols seen in Paul’s work such as star, triangle, heart and cut them from different colours and textures fabric. They can cut additional personal shapes or symbols if they like.
  • Students select images or words from the printed fabrics they would like to include in their artwork.
  • Arrange fabric words and symbols to the base layer with glue or pins (paper fasteners) to join the layers of fabric together. Once all these layers are in place students can use brightly coloured wool to stitch around the fabric edges or stitch into the printed images or words. Eg: a cross stitch in a few places or line stitch. If choosing to stitch around each letter or symbol the students will need additional time.


Extension:

  • Fill sections of their work with material from off cuts to create filled/puffy sections. 
  • Join their piece to another person to make a larger piece or collaborative quilt. 
  • Sew the edges of the work together and fill with off cuts to make a soft sculpture.

Australian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Years 7-10

Experiment with visual arts conventions and techniques (ACAVAM118) (ACAVAM125) 

Practise techniques and processes to enhance representation of ideas in their art-making (ACAVAM121) ​​ (ACAVAM128)

 

Victorian Curriculum / Visual Arts / Levels 7-10

Explore and Express Ideas

(VCAVAE033)(VCAVAE034)(VCAVAE040)(VCAVAE041)

Visual Arts Practices

(VCAVAV035) (VCAVAV036) (VCAVAV042)(VCAVAV043)

Respond and Interpret

(VCAVAR038)(VCAVAR045)

Curriculum Interpretation


This activity is devised in response to the exhibition Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH, an exhibition of textiles, assemblage and sculptural installation. Students explore the relationship between contemporary imagery with text and textiles. Students will develop an introduction to contemporary textiles as well as develop fine motor skills through the stitching and assemblage of soft sculpture.

Thematically students build awareness around the themes Paul Yore’s work explores such as gender, government, politics, religion, censorship and freedom of expression.

The focus for this activity is on choosing text and fabrics which reflect the students interest and re-interpreting them in a soft fabric collage inspired by the works of Paul Yore.

Teachers are presented with the opportunity to embed STEM ideas and principles into their lesson plan to develop students’ understanding about their artworks.

By undertaking these activities, students:

  • Experiment with embodied approaches to art making.
  • Select and experiment with new approaches to process, composition and technical execution.
  • Consider how an artists’ working methods contribute to the aesthetic qualities of their artworks.
  • Analyse how an artwork develops during the process of its making in ways that were not necessarily foreseen by the artist
  • Explore ideas and concepts related to textiles, text, mixed media, assemblage, installation.
  • They will develop experience in critical thinking as they explore history, politics and language.
  • They will experiment with collage techniques and fabric appliqué and stitching.
  • Consider the exhibition Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH as inspiration for their own art making.

Terms of Use

This education resource has been produced by ACCA Education to provide information and classroom support material for education visits to the exhibition Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH. The reproduction and communication of this resource is permitted for educational purposes only.

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Helen MacPherson Smith Trust DET