Tilt 2009: Spill: the insistent body

Spill: the insistent body is the 2009 exhibition in a new programme showcasing the practice of a Western Australian guest artist. The exhibition is part of the "Tilt" programme, developed by the City of Melville to support local artists and provide engaging art to the residents and visitors of Melville. Each year an artist is invited to respond to the Heathcote site, with its many layered history, by creating artwork through their chosen or a new exploratory medium. "Tilt" provides local artists with an opportunity to showcase their work and bring a range of art ideas and practice to new audiences.

Caitlin Yardley's works are concerned with the liquid materiality of paint, drawing from its metaphorical associations with the body and gender. The exhibition addresses ideas of containment and disorder paying particular attention to representations of the female patients who once resided at Heathcote Mental Reception Home. Through the use of poured paint and clinical objects the feminine body is admitted with its historical and biological suggestions of contrary, eccentric and unprincipled excess. The paintings in Spill aim to re-position the struggle between controlled and institutional systems of process and alchemical chance.