PROFILBARU.COM

Paul Yore
Paul Yore
Born	c. 1988; Melbourne, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Education	Monash University, Melbourne
Known for	Contemporary art
Movement	Textile arts, installation art, queer art

Paul Yore (born c. 1988) is an Australian contemporary artist. He works with a variety of media including tapestry, banners, quilted hangings, and large-scale installations of mixed media, and his work covers political, religious and LGBT themes.

Early life and education

Yore was born around 1988,^[1] and raised in a Catholic household. His father was a Franciscan priest,^[2] who worked as a missionary in Papua New Guinea, where he met Yore's mother.

Yore studied archaeology and anthropology and painting as part of a fine arts degree at Monash University, graduating in 2010.^[1]^[3]

Art practice

Yore works with a variety of media including tapestry, banners, quilted hangings, and large-scale installations of mixed media, with frequent use of found and discarded materials. His work covers political, religious and LGBT themes.^[4]

He sometimes uses trash in his artworks, creating a kind of "kitsch queerness", "bad taste aesthetic", to challenge people's perceptions, and to examine excess consumption in society. He also uses humour to engage viewers with serious ideas, saying:^[1]

I draw on the bawdy, camp kind of humour that drag queens, for example, would use — and in that instance, bad taste is more like a survival mechanism and a sort of pressure valve.

As of 2022^[update] he is based in Gunaikurnai country in Gippsland, Victoria.^[5]

Career

Yore's first large solo show was held in 2009 at Heide Museum of Modern Art in Melbourne.^[6]^[2]

He began his work with needlepoint in the United Kingdom in 2010, while recovering from a mental health crisis. The repetitive activity of embroidery helped him to recover from the effects of being detained and medicated against his will. Yore says:^[2]

I credit working in hand-sewn textiles almost daily as one of the key reasons I have stayed sober for over a decade

A 15-year survey exhibition of his works, titled WORD MADE FLESH, was held at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art from September to November 2022. The exhibition was curated and designed in collaboration between Paul Yore, Devon Ackerman (Yore's partner) and Max Delaney, the artistic director of the ACCA.^[3]^[7]

Reception

Yore has been described as one of Australia’s most provoking artists.^[4]

In June 2013, police cut seven images of children's faces from one of Yore's works entitled Everything is Fucked, that was on display at an exhibition at the Linden Centre for Contemporary Art in St Kilda. Yore was charged with producing and possessing child pornography, in relation to the collage that included images of children’s faces pasted onto images of adults engaging in sex acts.^[1]^[8] During the period he was facing these charges, some of his other works were selected for the Primavera exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney.^[8] In 2014, the charges were dismissed, and the prosecution was required to pay Yore's legal costs.^[9]^[10]^[1]

In September 2013, one of Yore's installations was withdrawn from the 2013 Sydney Contemporary art fair on the grounds that it would have been in breach of criminal law in New South Wales.^[11]^[8]

In 2019, a piece by Yore entitled Taste The Feeling 2018 was taken down from an exhibition at the Mostyn gallery in Llandudno, following a complaint to the police that it breached hate crime laws.^[12]

Selected exhibitions

2013: Poetry, Dream and the Cosmos, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne^[13]
2013: Here There and Everywhere, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Korea
2013: Melbourne Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
2014: Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
2016: Soft Core, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Sydney^[14]
2016: The Public Body .01, Artspace, Sydney^[15]
2016: Spectacular Spectacular, NADA Art Fair, Miami^[16]^[17]
2017: Mad Love, A3 Arnt Art Agency, Berlin^[13]
2022–2023: WORD MADE FLESH, October–November 2022 at Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne;^[5] then at Carriageworks in January–February 2023 (part of Sydney Festival)^[1]

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Heath, Nicola (6 November 2022). "Australian artist Paul Yore speaks about censorship in art, queer culture and Catholic kitsch as ACCA exhibition surveys his career". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022. Retrieved 6 November 2022. In June 2013, police armed with Stanley knives raided Linden Centre for Contemporary Arts... Police charged Yore, 25 at the time...
^ ^a ^b ^c Stephens, Andrew (22 September 2022). "Shaped by breakdown and a brush with police, Paul Yore takes aim at modern life". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Paul Yore: WORD MADE FLESH". Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b Lei, Celina (21 September 2022). "Paul Yore: Battling controversy with love and labour". ArtsHub Australia. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Paul Yore WORD MADE FLESH". Australian Arts Review. 24 September 2022. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Hughes, Helen (10–16 September 2022). "Artist Paul Yore". The Saturday Paper. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Shiels, Julie (6 October 2022). "Paul Yore: the uncompromising Australian artist riotously tackling queer culture, corporate greed and hyperconsumption". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c Taylor, Andrew (28 May 2014). "Artist facing child pornography charges selected for MCA exhibition". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Cooper, Mark Russell, Adam (1 October 2014). "Child pornography charges against artist Paul Yore dismissed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Melbourne artist accused of child pornography has charges dismissed". The Guardian. 1 October 2014. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ "Sydney art fair removes Paul Yore work". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 September 2013. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Bagnall, Steve; Crump, Eryl (20 July 2019). "Gay artist 'devastated' as his art removed from gallery amid 'homophobia' probe". North Wales Live. Archived from the original on 20 July 2019. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ ^a ^b "Paul Yore". NETS Victoria. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Jefferson, Dee (18 October 2016). "Soft Core". TimeOut. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Clement, Tracy (2 December 2016). "The Public Body .01". Art Guide Australia. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Roth, Minhae Shim (4 December 2016). "At NADA Art Fair, Paul Yore's Shocking Tapestries Dare You to Look Away". Miami New Times. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
^ Winata, Amelia (30 November 2016). "Paul Yore at Neon Parc, NADA Miami Beach 2016". Ocula. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.