Sullivan+Strumpf Sydney is pleased to announce “This is a stained glass window” – the first presentation by Sydney artist collective Barbara Cleveland.

“This is a stained glass window” is a single channel video installation that reflects on the 15-year working history of Barbara Cleveland, a collective of four artists: Frances Barrett, Kate Blackmore, Diana Baker Smith and Kelly Doley.

Directed by the collective, with original score by Corin Ileto, the new video work is inspired by the description of the friendship between two authors, political theorist Hannah Arendt and novelist Mary McCarthy who describe their friendship as a ‘thinking business for and with each other’.

The work enquires into Barbara Cleveland’s 15-year shared intellectual and creative pursuit, positioning their friendship, artistic labour and collaboration as “a stained glass window” – an accumulated density that exists between them.

Through a self-reflexive video portrait, which draws on the aesthetics and conventions of cinéma vérité, conceptual art and performance documentation, This is a stained glass window is a tracing of their unique working model and their imbricated lives.

Exposing their working method in a film studio, the video is an intimate portrait of the collective that purposefully considers how Barbara Cleveland’s specific ‘thinking business’ can offer an alternative support structure for and with each other.

The collective, which takes its name from the mythic feminist performance artist Barbara Cleveland, creates projects that are informed by queer and feminist methodologies that draw on the historical lineages of visual and performing arts.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, Artspace, and UNSW Art & Design.

“This is a stained glass window” is on view at Sullivan+Strumpf Sydney from 30 November to 20 December 2019.

For more information, please visit our website.