One of my Faves

Ever since I saw Dadang Christanto's installation, 'They give evidence' back in 2005 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in the newly opened Asian galleries, I have been a fan of this artist. 

Dadang Christanto has a significant reputation internationally as well as in his own country, Indonesia. His artistic oeuvre includes painting, drawing, performance, sculpture and installations.  I recently saw an image his latest offering in Artist Profile Magazine and was  captivated by the intensity of his painting style and subject matter.

I remember being completely overwhelmed by the standing figures carrying the bodies of men women and children. It was a moment in my awakening to art I will never forget. Christanto's powerful work continues with themes of grief in his most recent exhibition titled 'Behind the Veil' which was held at Gallery Smith in North Melbourne in July/August. 

About the exhibition, Dan Rule of the Age newspaperwrote; 'Though intricately beautiful, Indonesian-born artist Dadang Christanto's new acrylic-on-linen works, right, find their grounding in the silence of grief. Part of a long-term point of inquiry into the effects of organised human violence, Behind the Veil's striking, large-scale paintings tell the story of the female ethnic Chinese victims of a wave of racially fuelled violence that swept through Jakarta in May 1998, which left more than 1000 people dead and witnessed the rape of countless innocent women. For the most part, Christanto's paintings take the form of straight-on portraits, the beautifully ornate pattern, lightness and colour of the veil forging a stark contrast against the expressionless face and bleak, burnt backdrops. A common motif is that of pixelation. In the face of all that has happened, Christanto's subjects "self-censor". Pixels cover their mouths, ears and eyes; their trauma to be kept forever silent, their experience to remain confidential. It's a poignant, but still incredibly life-affirming collection. Indeed, there is a true, unyielding sense of resistance here. Though victims of unspeakable acts, these women have transcended the experience through sheer resilience' 

Absence makes the 'art' grow fonder

Its been a while since blogging I know. So whats happened between April and now? I've recently returned from a trip to Tasmania with Friends Sandra Winkworth and Felicity Jenkins where we visited markets, galleries and beautiful countryside.We got to get up close to Alpacas, get blown around in sub-Antarctic conditions at the top of Mount Wellington, ran into Bob Brown in Cygnet, almost pummeled  an echidna, adopted silly poses for photos and agreed on returning to this beautiful part of Australia to explore more and marvel at all it has to offer!

Returning home, it has been straight back into the studio with mixed results. It is a difficult mindset to labor over something that may or may not make it into an exhibition.

A week has passed, working  on a particular project  and I am mindful of the time I have remaining until exhibiting at Katoomba Fine Art in November  ('Basketry of Today') in a curated show by artist  Virginia Kaiser and then I'll be participating in Bathurst Regional Gallerys 'Local Artist Project' in December. The panic has truly set in and then I remind myself that I have been through all this before and survived! This week I have resumed Life Drawing with a small group of artists at Nolan on Lovel Gallery. Artist friend Tom Doherty invited me to join the group and I am really happy to be reestablishing my drawing skills once again.  I think it will be a while before putting any of my attempts at drawing up here on the blog!

Visit to Gulgong

Last week I paid a visit to Peter Williamson out at Gulgong where he and fellow artist Loris Quantock were doing an artist residency at a farm 14km out of town. My trip from Katoomba took about 2.5 hours and I was eager to see the landscape and see what they had been creating.

​Peter Williamson

The area was flatter than I had anticipated and there were plenty of sheep, grasshoppers and blue sky! Peter had made scones and a pot of tea which we ate on the back verandah of the artist cottage. Peter had collected vines and other plant material from around the property and wove some large sculptural pieces, but the technique and artwork which really bowled me over was the mushroom pictures derived from the actual mushroom spore which left an imprint on black paper left overnight. The works looked quite photographic and you could distinguish each vein and line of the underbelly of the mushroom. Fantastic!

After seeing Loris' work in the studio we headed out for a walk through the paddock and all the while, I anticipated a snake coming out of the long grass and terrifying me back to the safety of my car. Peter did not seem overly concerned so I took that as a good sign.

It was a great day out and I took the opportunity to stop along the road driving back to Katoomba to snatch a few photographs of the scenery.

National Art School Days

I recently came across a plastic storage tub of all my negatives from art school days. I have had a laugh scanning in pictures and remembering my time in Newtown and the fun I had in the photography department at the National Art School in Sydney back in the late 90's-early 2000's. I miss the processes associated with the dark room and using film, but like many, have converted to the digital way- and fear I will never get to 

mix up a batch of processing chemicals or lock myself away in a dark room ever again! These days, I tweak and process images from the comfort of my Mac with a program called Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop. Images overexposures? no problem, move a slider and presto! A vibrant new image restored to anything better than I could have possibly struggled with in the dark room. The possibilities are endless. In fact, lately, I had been so seduced by the ease by which images may be transformed, that I sit at the computer for longer 

than I should. It is a nice detour around the usual work I have been doing over the last several years and it is exciting to be reacquainted with photography after a long absence.

Thanks to Margaret Mayhew and Jodie Barker for modeling for these pictures some years ago. I'm not quite sure what I was trying to achieve with all the darkness and the scary theme, but we had fun. The picture of me was a bit of a shock when I first saw it as it was when I was still a smoker! 

Secondly, I noticed how thin I was; thirdly, I had more hair!

I recently came across a very funny photography site called'Black and WTF' which is worth a look. It provided me with a giggle and is worth going back through the archives to see some pretty strange and ludicrous photographs. Long live