Austin’s work for this exhibition marks a continuation of her exploration of the limits of the physicality and perception of the body in culture; of cycles of life and death; and of a recurrent desire to re-imagine our relationship with nature and our surrounding environment through ritual, myth and mysticism. Using the mythological structure of the Lupercalia rites, Austin interrogates the possibilities for ritualised action and the symbolic marking of transformation.  Lupercalia presents a site prepared for the performance of a new ritual, a scene that draws on the hybridity of the tradition after which it is named. The exhibition draws together two figures; combining animal and human, natural and artificial form. During the exhibition period the figures will be prepared for symbolic and literal joining.

Austin’s current sculptural practice involves working on a large scale with wax, rubber, metal and organic materials such as flowers and fish scales, producing work using casting processes that are intricate and complex. The work intervenes with bodily form, morphing skin and the human structure with objects from nature. Working across video, performance, sculpture, painting and mixed media, she uses materials that appear alive on the body, imbuing her work with the unpredictability and transience of nature. Through its combination of installation and performance, the exhibition Lupercalia institutes a narrative matrix, in which sculptural objects become sacred instruments, tools and vestments. The resulting works push towards imaginative slippages in which objects and bodies meld, generating hybrid forms that are simultaneously alarming and seductive.