Narelle Jubelin - Soft Shoulder

This challenging and beautiful installation is matched only by its catalogue, which documents this Australian artist’s United States museum debut. Like the installation for which it was titled, Soft Shoulder engages the reader in a game of complex object associations. At the center of all Jubelin’s work is the inter-relatedness of people and places as they occur by way of fate, coincidence or deliberate migration and exchange. Jubelin links Chicago and Australia through a cast of characters including Walter Burley Griffith and Marion Mahoney Griffith, Anais Nin, Frank Lloyd Wright and Jane Addams. In her close reading of Jubelin’s methodology, Juliana Engberg gives background and insight into the life of objects. Lewis and Jacob’s expertly executed text offers a glossary of objects, people, quotations and ideologies-all cross referenced-not so much to explain the installation, as to open a series of related experiences. Published in conjunction with Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University 1994.