Narelle Jubelin: Flamenco Primitivo

Born in Sydney in 1960, Jubelin has lived and worked in Madrid since 1996. Her work engages with the translation of visual culture across countries, with particular reference to the legacies of international Modernists.
Flamenco Primitivo appropriates its title from the opening ‘cante’ (actually unsung) performed in Madrid by the contemporary Flamenco singer Niño de Elche, breaking tradition whilst wearing a Francis Bacon t-shirt. Exploring the way objects – particularly those of cultural significance – travel through the world, Jubelin uses artistic movements as a vehicle through which to navigate such flows. The physical context of Jubelin’s work is central to the exhibition; Marlborough, and the gallery’s own relationship with seminal artists such as Bacon, almost instinctually become part of the artist’s narrative.
In Flamenco Primitivo, Jubelin exhibits petit point renditions of formative regional Modernist works including Anni Albers, Lina Bo Bardi, Lee Bontecou, José Guerrero, Hannah Höch, Ree Morton, Pablo Picasso, Mira Schendel and a collaboration between Josef Albers and Harry Seidler. A key element of her oeuvre, Jubelin’s intricate and laborious sewing works compel the spectator to engage with the intimacy of scale, whilst mobilising the concept of needlepoint as ‘women’s work’.
The artist employs a redemptive curatorial practice to re-exhibit these modernist touchstones, offering a critique on the complexities of canonisation and the barriers inherent within art-historical precedents.