2010 EXHIBITIONs

I enjoy painting ordinary objects. At first glance they appear plain, but these objects exist in a world of their own – one that often goes unobserved. The more I look at them the more they reveal something about that world.

Objects can also stand for much more than they seem and I often use them as metaphors to comment on things like solidity and transience, or our contemporary political and social conditions. One of the themes of my work is the way that communication can be misunderstood, or used to deceive, which is why I often paint objects that are wrapped or partially concealed.

Without consciously pursuing any particular themes, my work is evolving in its own way. I remain curious about the new forms that emerge when I sit amongst my materials and begin to play. To entertain myself is a force that brings about new forms but for some reason I can’t shake the chairs – something that has held me for thirty years.

Paper is such a pervasive material in our everyday lives. We write on it, read it, drink out of it and eat off it, yet in terms of conservation, it is considered one of the most fragile of mediums in the art world.

This exhibition is ostensibly concerned with the nature of paper itself, with works produced on paper, with paper or about paper. It will feature the work of Melinda Le Guay, Lezlie Tilley, Nicola Moss, Helen Mueller, Nicola Dickson, Patsy Payne, Janet Parker-Smith, Debbie Hill, Helena Leslie, Tammie Castles, Caren Florance, James Blackwell, Nicci Haynes, Wendy Edwards, Susan Buret, Janis Nedela, Thurle Wright and Melinda Capp who are all using this most common and everyday material in creative ways.

Image: Helen Mueller, “Art”, 2008, ink on handmade Vietnamese paper, cotton thread, 6.5 x 11 x 0.5cm

My current work explores the act of looking: looking at people and the things that they look at. I am fascinated by the changes in physical demeanour, gesture and posture that occur when people look at
someone or something of obvious interest to them.

I am particularly interested in moments where a physical change is wrought through the mediated gaze of the camera, especially when people let their cameras capture an experience for them and their bodies twist and contort to capture the perfect shot. These moments of change are fleeting and I, in turn, use my camera to record them.

The painted images I create from these observations retain their photographic influence whilst at the same time suggesting a clearly altered space.

Symbols are often ambiguous and contradictory. This idea has influenced my recent works; several symbolic meanings may be depicted as a result of different aspects being stressed in different works. As well as the obvious meaning, a symbol can represent ‘something other than itself’, a material object used to represent
an unseen concept.

This exhibition engages with existential issues; it addresses feelings of doubt when confronting the unknown and all of the compromises to do with the cycle of living. It’s about what it means to be in an uncertain world with thoughts, feelings, and desires as a vulnerable and sometimes fragile being. The work is ambiguous and sometimes mysterious and just as life is uncertain, so too is the predicament in these three dimensional situations. The protagonist in these works is not revealed – they remain anonymous and could be a universal model of humanity. The simplified forms are intended to be vessels that the viewer can fill with their own meanings and memories.

In my desire to capture movement I am morphing and animating the opposing forces of the mechanical and natural worlds. I continue to explore ‘organic mechanics’ in an ever changing technological environment. Whilst the use of mild steel referenced an industrial era in previous work, stainless steel evokes the post-industrial technological landscape of today. We are all connected.

My artworks investigate the mechanics of human dynamics and the neurological processes that create patterns in our daily lives of which we are often not aware.
I observe my own psychological, sociological and genealogical patterns, as well as those of my immediate circle of friends and family. Although the content of my work is highly personal, the themes are universal. Each artwork, or series of artworks, explores these
patterns demonstrating how they can be altered to create new sequences and thus new results.

I believe that we learn through example, through the stories of others, which is why I choose myself and my family and friends as my primary subjects. Therefore, each artwork, whether painting, sculpture,
drawing or installation, is laden with personal symbolism.

When delivered in a visual form these concepts become a metaphoric map that seeks to be meaningful for both the subject and the viewer.

Green is no longer just a colour in the 21st century. This show will focus on issues such as the environment, conservation and sustainable living. It features the work of artists who use their practice to express their concerns about environmental issues such as the impact of introduced species, deforestation and genetically modified crops.

Image: Lorraine Biggs, “Biodiversity”, 2008, ink on 240gsm Arches paper - edition of five, 24.5 x 18.5cm

This body of work moves towards a more compatible alignment of
material and conceptual content. The porcelain forms I’ve made
for some years have always been underpinned by concerns for an environment at risk. As a consequence this show attempts to address my use of resources in object making.

I have changed the way that I work to ensure that there is minimal environmental impact. Most of the power used in firing is supplied by solar panels and steps have been taken to minimise waste in the studio. This journey has also taken me from making works almost exclusively in cast porcelain, through a variety of recycled media into a current obsession with charcoal, which is salvaged from winter fires.
Wood for the fire is cut from old fenceposts and fallen branches sourced from local farms. Fuel that would otherwise be piled in a paddock and burnt in ways that are much more polluting than my slow combustion stove. Within a wider conceptual framework, charcoal is linked to scientific investigations into biochar as a soil rejuvenator and an effective means of carbon capture. It can also refer to current
political debates about carbon trading.

Each work captures a moment in the life of an individual. A small moment or fragment of a story is made significant by the mere fact that it has been acknowledged. The action represented becomes poetic and symbolic.

The human figures are simplified, faceless and psychologically remote. Are they us or people passing through our lives? The
animal figures also propose a story that the viewer can complete.
I continue to use a variety of materials from solid cast iron and bronze to the more spontaneous corrugated iron fragments reshaped and riveted together.

My painting is strongly influenced by the conventions of cinema, which allows me to put together fragments, cuts and dissolves delivering a “movie” in several frames. This is one of the reasons why I work with figures in motion – to create the implication that something has come
before and something will happen after the event. Each scene is a fragment of time in the action – a privileged moment in a continuum.

Each image contains the implication of a narrative. This is conveyed by the motion of figures, the way in which they relate and the “noise” of urban colour, surfaces and signage. However, in the end, I want the work to provide a space for contemplation. I aim for a stillness that comes from an arrested moment that is able to continually engage the viewer. My paintings do not reveal themselves quickly; ideally, they are an invitation to bring one’s own experiences to the work and influence its meaning.

I am intrigued by my own vanity as an artist and the motivation that drives me; the narcissism that makes me think I can sell my realised thoughts; the arrogance that holds me to the idea that my thoughts are valuable to
the world and the self-importance that my opinions and philosophy are still relevant in this age of consumerism.

My work revolves around ideas of memory, preservation and both the psychological and physical aspects of the human condition.

In the process of laying down memory, signals move through individual nerve cells as tiny electrical charges. These electrical charges form the basis of our memories, thoughts and feelings. They are repeated when one recalls an event, image, emotion or even a scent. As we age or sustain trauma, this procedure can fail but frequently accessed memories can last indefinitely.

These processes constitute the starting point from which I will build, assemble and nurture this new body of work.

My work continues to examine the relationship between culture and nature at a time when these issues are beginning to jostle uncomfortably for room. The naive perception that ‘nature’ is a construct of our own is long past and a cultural shift that acknowledges that we are a fairly minor and extremely vulnerable part of our physical environment needs a greater cultural airing.

It is both humbling and salutary to look back over millions of years of earth’s ‘history’ and place our creative efforts within that context. My contribution attempts to explore narratives that draw on deep time in order to see ourselves within this larger frame.

I continue to focus my art practice on the way that technology mediates between experience and understanding and also creates the codes with which we represent ourselves and our environment. Scientific imaging technologies have allowed for visual interpretations of the interface between the visible and invisible.

In this new body of work, edges and boundaries are presented as permeable, allowing the inside out and the outside in and suggesting interconnections that exist between and across bodies of knowledge. Environmental textures and forms become the material of the body and the body has become transparent. The meaning of these works is found in the spaces within the steel structure. Shadows are created as light passes through the interlaced metal form and give as much material presence to the body as the structure itself. The interplay of positive and negative spaces metaphorically balances the dichotomies that are part of the human condition.

This exhibition is a continuation of themes developed in a small impromptu show called Precusor held in 2009. For many years I have explored traditional women’s craftwork such as weaving, knitting and patchwork, albeit often using traditionally male materials like steel strapping, timber architrave and the inner tubes of tyres.

From this intensive exploration, the square format evolved and this new body of work will again consist of a series of small square canvases, all identical in size. When installed, however, they will be more like a single kaleidoscope of abstracted shapes and colours.
I am interested in creating paintings that work on a number of levels: as individual entities and as elements within a much larger framework.

I want to wake up one day and find magicool beams sparkling from my finger tips; nails painted in rainbow colours.

I want to walk to work, ride the crowded train and get my everyday mocha with a bigger than huge green grass bear leaving footprints of daisies, grass and dirt.

I want every Friday to be dress up day, every second day of the month will be musical day and every fifth day will be a special day where the ants that visit my house are invited to visit my office; making everyone in their suits and heels crouch on the floor, to watch their famous silent carnival act.

I want one day to be brave enough to stand up in front of a packed out train carriage and show everyone the magicoolness that hides in the vent between the fluoro light and the window; sharing a piece for every cupped hand, shirt pocket or pant cuff.

After my last exhibition there was time to pause and reflect on the level of risk and excitement that was created by the process. The ambition of the work created many logistical problems which
were only solved after some real effort.

The resulting exhibition, in hindsight, was really almost one piece. It occupied a small space physically but because the pieces were few in number it felt to me like I was looking at a cohesive whole.

This show will be very different in that each work will clearly have its own identity but will obviously be linked by my approach to sculpture and sensitivity to materials, space, weight, light, form, line, shape, volume, mass etc. A lot of decision making has and is going on in order to make this work. I trust the quality is there because, as Clement Greenberg said in Homemade Esthetics, “quality in
art appears to be directly proportionate to the density or weight of decision that’s gone into its making.”* In regards to the density of decision making, this show is very weighty.

* Clement Greenberg, Homemade Esthetics: observations on art and taste, Oxford University Press, 1999, p.48

My artwork explores issues of identity and transience through a sense of play.

I use everyday images and objects, often collected on my travels, to explore emotional associations within our immediate environment and memories – real and invented. I am interested in focusing on the micro
and bringing our attention to the small details which are often overlooked and ignored. This microcosmos, at times humorous and bizarre, highlights the transformation and personification of such images as a means of making sense of our surroundings, our environment and ultimately ourselves.

Working with modules and components allows me to develop
relationships between forms and in turn investigate the life of an
object outside of its original intent and purpose. The work takes on
deep personal symbolism as it personifies imaginary dialogues and relationships, drifting in and out of an augmented reality. Different
characters and personalities are captured in a fleeting moment to reveal a network of masked identities, fragmented conversations and hidden emotions.

I have always found sanity a wonderfully elusive mist that continually fails to hide the far more interesting things experience can suggest.

In my last exhibition the fairy theme began as a tribute to my mother and the demented Victorian fairy painter Richard Dadd. In my new work, the visions of Dadd’s insanity combine with the poetic logic of fairy tales and mythology to provide another way of seeing the world around us. This is the irrational world of strange forces and passions
our contemporary culture has no place for. We dismiss such quaint experiences as imperfections left over from our primitive beginnings. They are fit only for anthropology or the pathology of psychosis.

In the geology of experience, there are many layers... some apparent and some quite hidden from the normal view. We look, yet often miss the laminated nature of things and activities surrounding us. Simple routines are not what they seem. I begin to see that the simple tableau we take for reality is, in fact, “peopled” by a much richer and stranger crowd of others.