Billie Rose, our favourite Newtown singer-songwriter rap-starlet has kicked off the Marrickville Contemporary Art Prize this year with her very own solo showcase. At The Vanishing Point gallery in Newtown will play host to Rose’s latest exhibition for the next two weeks – a show truly representing it’s own title – Psycho/Active. Winner of the prize last year, Rose vouches that this had a profound effect on her and she’s certainly delivered the goods to prove it. The exhibition is a wild tasting of the artist’s dappling in nude photography, solar powered sculpture, sound activated installation and living art.

Perhaps better described as an experience than an exhibition, Psycho/Active engages its audience on a number of levels. At first glance her work entitled Game On seems to be no more than a mattress on the floor, but upon closer inspection we begin to appreciate its artistic touches. Fenced in by barbed wire, cylindrical lava lamps and boasting a neon-sign as a bed head it’s clear the work toys with notions of private verses public space and most definitely taps into voyeuristic theory. Rose’s nude photography, mounted on vinyl, should be commended for its composition and sensitive treatment of rather provocative subject matter. Nude women pose for Rose’s lens and draw us in to a seductive world of flawless femininity.

Next we have Coffin Table and Tomb – the artist’s experimental living art. Flipping the lid open we discover lettuce leaves and can only imagine what’s actually living within the installation piece. Veiled in black netting, visitors are most welcome to sit at one of the four chairs surrounding the table and engage in an immersive interactive experience of the work. Rose should also be commended on her video work Stuck Behind Bars, a short film geared at exploring debauched youth. Rose encourages punters to escape into their own world and experience her art just as they please. By this, I mean to explain that Rose has created a solo EP soundtrack of original scores to correspond with specific works in the exhibition. Available for pick-up at the gallery’s reception desk it’s a cheeky and fun way to draw us punters in even closer to the slightly disheveled world of the artist.

Honourable mention must also go to Ruby Slippers and Know U alongside Roleo and Elsquire who heated things up at last Friday’s launch party and Rose herself for a live performance of her original music, really added some extra fuel to the vibrancy of Rose’s show.

What: Psycho/Active by Billie Rose

Where: At The Vanishing Point, King St, Newtown

When: until the 18th of September

How much: Free