ABELLA D’ADAMO
Abella D’Adamo (she/her) is a Naarm-based artist with no one genre or practice to define her work. Experimenting across painting, sculpture, film and modelling, it’s the Japanese style of ‘sex aesthetics’ that Abella’s current art draws influence from, with a recent trip to Tokyo the catalyst of inspiration to much of the artist’s catalogue of work. Speaking to Abella on her way between studios - just after the conclusion of Monash’s Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) grad work exhibition, where some of Abella’s pieces were shown - Demure writer Juliette Salom (she/her) delves into all things art, Abella and her relationship between erotic imagery and food.
Photography credits: Imogen Wilson (photographs of Abella), Aden Miller (photographs of Abella’s work in the MADA Now Graduate Exhibition 2023).
One would be forgiven for developing a super crush on Abella D’Adamo’s work. Sugar-filled and air brushed-finished, the range of the emerging Naarm artist’s catalogue of pieces stretches across almost every medium and mode. There’s nothing the artist won’t try, it seems. And like all experimental artistic production that feels as imbued with emotion as it does with purpose, like all plastic-wrapped sugar hits and burgeoning romantic potentials, Abella’s work is promised to keep you wanting more.
Abella (aka @supacrushh) is as multi-disciplined as they come. Moving between painting, collage, film, sculpture and modelling, Abella floats from one kind of art to the next without so much as a breath of hesitation. Having just finished up the Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) program at Monash University, after finishing her Undergraduate degree at VCA, as well as building on a catalogue of work and collaborations with brands all around town, Abella’s endless pivots to new kinds of artmaking is showing no signs of slowing down.
With a current interest in airbrushing – trialling intricate techniques and tools to produce work that feels both culturally referential and wholly unique – Abella’s four pieces that have been on display at Monash as part of the Honours Graduate 2023 Exhibition predominantly centre around an exploration of what she calls the “sex aesthetics”. Speaking about this latest array of pieces, the artist details the inspiration she has drawn from the “visual depiction of sex imagery in consumerism”, with a particular focus on the relationship between erotic imagery and food production. Harking back to sub-cultural movements of the recent past, Abella says that a lot of her work has been influenced by styles from the aesthetics of gothic, punk and psychedelic fashion and album art, pop psychology, and manga illustrative styles. More than anything though, as is often the case when artists of any kind are reaching out to time periods and cultures outside of the one we exist in right now, it was a trip overseas that provided Abella the fodder of inspiration for her current works.
Travelling solo to Tokyo in the snowy northern hemisphere winter of January earlier this year, Abella was inspired by the world-enveloping Japanese cultural references, which went on to become a vocabulary in her work. Through this focus on the Japanese interpretation of ‘sex aesthetics’, Abella has drawn a lot of inspiration from Japanese illustrator Rockin’ Jelly Bean. It was the artist’s collaboration with Pharrell and Nigos’s brand Ice Cream that got Abella’s attention, though, with her referencing their products as having “sparked my interest in the role of food [working] in parallel with erotic illustrations of women.” Abella has used a similar kind of atmosphere and visual language, she says, in developing her own work.
One of these works, in particular, is the notorious piece titled Suck It. Part sculpture, part collage, the piece consists of a sugar coma-worthy amount of lollies and sweets – from Korean Lotte lolly pops and Trolli fake burgers to pops of liquorice and pillows of marshmallows. Bought by prolific art hotel Tolarno in St Kilda, the artwork is soon to be observed by hotel frequenters who are staying the night here in Naarm, either for leisurely long visits or just cheeky overnight stays.
Pointing out her curiosity in the way she finds artificial food sometimes “so picturesque and unreal”, Abella’s interpretation of erotic depiction through the compilation of sweet treats draws viewers of the piece in with the kind of dedicated interest and focus on its intricacies in the same way erotic imagery attempts. Like a concentrated compilation of all of everyone’s favourite kinds of desired sugar-filled treats that lead to that insane rush of feeling after a sugar binge, Suck It feels like a portal to the most exaggerated version of eroticism: the absolute intoxicating pleasure of the high.
Like all of Abella’s pieces, Suck It is no different in its intentions. It’s urging you feel something, to see one thing and think about another, to draw comparisons between the imagery of the lollies and the imagery of sex. And, perhaps, even to be turned a little on.