Exhibitions

2019: Resilience in the natural world – Resilient Women Traveller Series

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The following works will feature in an upcoming joint show at Alternating Current (26 April to 18 May 2019). The show is titled Resilience in the natural world. Melody Spangaro and I have approached the theme of resilience from two different perspectives and dimensions (temporal and geographic), unified by the central theme of exploration of the natural world. I explore the resilience displayed by female travellers such as Isabella Bird, Mildred Cable and others in Central Asia between 1890 and 1930. My works consist of diptychs of the traveller and the landscape in which she travelled. The use of magenta references the colour coding of the Penguin travel series, in recognition of their travel writing. Closer to Melbourne and current time, Melody Spangaro has explored the visual representation of personal experiences and memories of insignificant natural environments. Through exploration of the treatment of abandoned objects, Melody highlights our degradation of the natural landscape, a landscape once as pristine as that explored by the travellers in my works.

 

Alternating Current Art Space- preparation for exhibition

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I have recently been exploring the use of real and/or appropriated images and memories to create visual narratives, based on my interest in European exploration of the Silk Road. The Resilient Women – Travellers series continues this interest by framing and focussing on the lives of European female travellers to Central Asia between 1860 and 1930. These women defied convention to live extraordinary lives of intrepid travel, motivated by a sense of adventure, and for some, faith. They included:

  • Isabella Bird (1831-1904)
  • Mildred Cable (1878-1952)
  • Alexandra David-Neel (1868-1969)
  • Mary Gaunt (1861-1942)
  • Ella Maillart (1903-1997)
  • Janet Wulsin (1894-1963)

The works in this series consist of diptychs of the traveller and the landscape in which she travelled. The use of magenta in the work references the colour coding of the Penguin book series ‘Travel and Adventure’, in recognition of the fact that most of these women published accounts of their travels, and some made their living from such accounts.

Selected works (including those shown below) will be shown at the group show at Alternating Current Art Space in late April 2019.

Amazing Silk Road artefacts at the Art Gallery of NSW

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Last week I visited the Art Gallery of NSW to see the amazing artefacts from the Tang Dynasty. Here are some photos and drawings.

 

The Awesome Ulla von Brandenburg exhibition@ACCA_melbourne

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I recently visited the Ulla von Brandenburg exhibition at ACCA. A multi dimensional exhibition consisting of video works, whimsical watercolor portraits, (intriguingly described as being on antique paper) and a striking display of found objects, underpinned by a central theatrical theme, which itself is reinforced by the circus tent like red draped entrance. The layout of the works across multiple ACCA galleries wonderfully accentuates the sparse nature of the works.

 

Intriguing exhibition of North Korean print making @annaschwartzg

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Anna Schwartz’s Melbourne gallery has an intriguing exhibition of work by a North Korean artist – Kim Guang Nan. The exhibition is titled ‘The Future is Bright’. The works are linocut on high gloss paper. Curiously (or perhaps intentionally) the works are based in other worlds – deep sea or outer space. They have a comic book element, akin to the cartoon ‘The Jetsons’. The sophisticated composition shows a highly sanitised, idealised world view, reminiscent of 19050s propaganda art of China (i.e., the heroic worker image).

Untitled-3 Untitled-2

 

 

The amazing Francis Upritchard @ APT8 and @MUMA

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I first saw Francis Upritchard’s work at APT8 in Brisbane late last year, when I was intrigued (and possibly slightly repelled) by her fleshy, elongated figures, reminiscent of a bizarre ‘Punch’ from a Punch and Judy show, with a hint of Giacometti. I saw her exhibition at MUMA last week and was enthralled with the whimsy and playful nature of the works, albeit some with a slight edge. The exhibition consists of mainly of sculpture and painting. Objects are liberated from their original purpose (from spectacle cases to hockey sticks) to become occupants in her other universe. Here are some photos and drawings of the APT8 and also the MUMA works.