Blake Prize 2010

Yesterday I was in Sydney and visited the National Art School where I went to see the 2010 Blake Prize exhibition. My favourite works were Linelle Stepto's 'Possible Futures- Creative Cosmology' and Janine Mackintosh's 'Above and Beyond'. For obvious reasons, they resonated with my own practice and referred to nature and the surprising forms found in nature.

Janine Mackintosh 'Above and Beyond'

It has been 8 years since studying at the Art School and I noticed many changes around the campus. Even locating a loo had me asking the sentinel at the security box for directions!  

​Linelle Stepto 'Possible Futures-Creative Cosmology'

Anne Wilson

I love it when you stumble upon someones work which resonates. It's curious to me why some work speaks volumes and others dont. That is why I was happy to come across Chicago based artist Ann Wilson-  'who creates sculpture, drawings, internet projects and DVD stop motion animations that explore themes of time, loss, private and social rituals.'  These images are from her work titled 'Topographies' In her artist statement she writes; 

'Textiles, in their expandable and accumulative structure, can be seen as metaphors for such a matrix. In this new project, the webs and networks of found black lace are deconstructed to create large horizontal topographies, 'physical drawings' that are both complicated and delicate. This work is a constantly unfolding process of close observation, dissection, and recreation.' 

At the beginning of Ann's artist statement pertaining to the work, architect Douglas Garofalo states-'While our society faces a growing fragmentation and specialization that seems at times to alienate us all, we have also started to view our world as a series of integrated, even entangled networks. One way we can begin to understand this contradictory state is as a matrix of field phenomena - repetitive patterns of texture, growth, turbulence, sound, light, etc., within a given system or space.'

Knowing when to stop

After two and a half weeks in total working on an artwork that was plainly going nowhere, it was time to concede defeat. Needless to say, after trashing the work, I needed to get out of the house for a while and settle the frustration. Nothing like a walk in the mountains on a freezing day under dressed! Wisdom comes from knowing when to walk away from an artwork and not laboring over it; hoping that miraculously it was salvageable. Not so this time. Even the wincing and tentative suggestions from my partner initially contributed to the delusion that I was on to something with this piece despite the comments and awkward critiques. It just feels like S**T to have put so much time into something and for it to end up in the trash. Onwards and upwards.... I was forwarded some images rephotographed at Katoomba Fine Art of two of my larger sand vessels which made my day. Graeme Wienand from Katoomba Fine Art has done a fantastic job of  documenting them. Now I only have about 24 more to make before December! Better get back in the studio..

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'