Photograph by Crista Bradshaw
Ariella Napoli is an emerging contemporary artist living and working on Kaurna Country, Adelaide. She graduated from the University of South Australia at the end of 2023 with a Bachelor of Contemporary Art and is currently completing her Bachelor of Creative Art (Honors). Working across media, her work employs queer feminist methodologies that aim to celebrate sexual expression unbound by essentialist assumptions of the human experience. Ultimately, she seeks to bring pleasure to individuals who have been denied it or taught to deprive themselves of it for the benefit of others.
She explores oppressive patriarchal systems and the policing of gender and sexual expression to better understand her internal dialogue around sex and identity. Informed by post-essentialist theories, and BDSM and feminist writers, Ariella is motivated by her internal struggle with feelings of submitting to the dominant influences around her. She reflects on how institutional ideologies, normalised representations of gender, and idealised ideas about sex, work to oppress free expression.
Ariella’s latest enquiry delves into the world of queer joy investigating how ooze can be used to expression notions of pleasure, desire, and abjectivity. This approach attempts to dismantle white and male-serving ideological structures by celebrating diverse voices and experiences. Ariella utilises haptic contemporary video to capture her interactions with viscous materials that slip, squelch, drip, and ooze.
With a foundation in oil painting, Ariella is now diving into sculpture, installation and video in search of ways to translate her incessantly transforming perceptions. Simultaneously, Ariella is skill-building in ceramic techniques to incorporate plaster and ceramic forms into her studio practice.