I’m sure everyone remembers their first crush, and even more fondly, their first requited love. That electrical current when hands inadvertently touched; the feeling of drowning in a kiss or losing yourself to an embrace.
image: 'Untitled' 2003-2021, courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
The latest Bill Henson exhibition is all that. Here again are Henson’s signature beautiful young ones at the cusp of emotional and sexual discovery; their frisson lighting a million stars (or streetlights) from a universe that they have entirely forgotten in the wonder of their awakening desire.
The deeply shadowed scenes of these beautiful young creatures are almost sculptural (a compositional approach intrinsic to Henson’s work) and remind us that these desires have been awakening since the first humans walked the earth.
Henson captures the timeless quality of those longing looks and tender caresses – we can’t but help think of archetypal young love and those wonderful love stories that are mythical, Shakespearean … and playing our in every teenagers’ life!
image: 'Untitled' 2001-2021, courtesy of the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery
As desperately romantic – and timeless – as a stolen kiss, you will remember the feeling of your first infatuation and those moments you thought life would stop if your love was not returned. And, as always, you will be in awe of the evocative beauty of Bill Henson’s work.
Bill Henson
until 1 April 2021