Georgia Banks: A Four Letter Word

Follow artist Georgia Bank’s journey auditioning for a popular reality TV dating show, over a 150-day marathon. Will the artist succeed in her quest to find true happiness? And how much will she have to give up, to be given away?

A Four Letter Word takes the viewer step-by-step through the arduous audition process for reality television, from invasive questionnaires, police checks, STI and personality tests, to meetings with executive producers and psychologists. A Four Letter Word is a raw, and somewhat absurd account of the artists’ foray into this strange cultural phenomenon. Follow along as the artist attempts to understand what it is that has us all tuning in—or perhaps more accurately tuning out—to reality television, in our obsession with finding true love.

Georgia Banks’ works begin with an invitation and a provocation. Sometimes they are met with an overwhelming response, sometimes no one answers at all. She does not value either of these outcomes over the other. In recent years she has been banned from Tinder, sued by the estate of Hannah Wilke, and awarded Miss Social Impact in a national beauty pageant. She would like to go viral, become a reality TV star, and be inaugurated into the Guinness World Records Hall of Fame. She has never had a filling nor broken a bone (although she has been crucified) and once was convinced she had accidentally sliced away a part of her labia during a performance (she hadn’t).

Georgia Banks is a current studio artist at Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne.

She completed a Masters of Fine Arts (Research) at the Victoria College of the Arts in 2015.

OPENING

Friday 17 January 2020, 6–8pm

ARTIST TALKS

Saturday 22 February 2020, 12.30—1.30pm