Juz Kitson

Today I drove to Windsor to visit Hawkesbury Regional Gallery where I was keen on seeing Juz Kitson's artwork in a show on contemporary ceramics.
I was fortunate enough to meet Juz whilst on an artist residency at Hill End earlier this year and was excited to see her work in a gallery space, having only seen it in progress in her Hill End studio.
Juz's delicate and sometimes confronting forms are so exquisitely beautiful and shocking that I found myself in a contradictory state of sensual delight and intrigued disgust.  Joseph Brennan of Australian Arts Review says of Kitson's work-

"In art discourse, the sacred/profane metaphor is a recurring dichotomy. Freud used this metaphor when exploring the divide between love and desire. He argued that, in art, where we love we do not desire and where we desire we cannot love.

Emerging artist Juz Kitson challenges this view through her sculptures and ceramic installations, which seek to make sacred the profane. "I have an interest in ever so slightly repulsing the viewer at first experience," Kitson said. "They are unsettled. This uneasiness then turns into wonder and in a later stage, fascination." Working with a range of materials - including wax, latex, clay, alpaca wool, seaweed, horse and human hair and bone - Kitson is interested in exploring what she terms "uncomfortable territories", captivating her audience "by quietly shocking and seducing them". The context and properties of particular materials are also important. The use of latex, for example, is sometimes a statement within itself, "Only having a life span of less than a decade ... like ourselves it will perish"; while the locale of found objects have trapped within them a history, for example, bones collected from Hill End." 

Kitson is a 2009 ceramics Honours graduate of Sydney's National Art School and is on a trajectory to becoming one of Australia's most fertile and innovative contemporary ceramicists. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Lorenzo Duran

Spanish artist Lorenzo Duran painstakingly cuts delicate designs into dried leaves, using a method inspired by Asian and European papercutting traditions. He calls the ongoing project “Naturayarte.”

After seeing Lorenzo's skill with the scalpel, I am in awe! I can only manage to cut out the simple shapes like circles and squares. 

Then & Now

Whilst on residency in Hill End in May/June, I had numerous artist friends visit Haefliger's cottage which made my month long stay more enjoyable. Toward the end of the residency, I assembled the group to re-enact a photograph which appears in Gavin Wilson's book titled, 'The Artist's of Hill End'. The 1956 photo was taken at the front of Haefliger's cottage and featured artists Jean Bellette, Russel Drysdale, Donald Friend and Bonnie Drysdale. The 2011 re-enactment features Juz Kitson, James Blackwell, Felicity Jenkins and Sandra Winkworth.

Artist Phoebe McDonald

I subscribe to the website Artabase which features new members artwork. This morning I came across Phoebe McDonald, a Brisbane-based artist. 'Her work is centred on concepts of interconnectedness and impermanence, and she has an ongoing interest in the nature of light, time, space and perception. She is also interested in the subtle changes and cyclic events that occur in the natural environment over time.'

I particularly liked her 'Shadow Series 2009', as seen here.