2020
2019
Exposed - In Stupid As A Painter exhibition, Library Stairwell Gallery, Darlinghurst
The studio for me is like a changing room for life - a space for independently working my process-driven practice. Exposed hints at the necessary human experience of vulnerability in its varying degrees. At its extreme it is can be accompanied by the suffocating sensation of a ‘shame cloud’ that seems to linger over me for much longer than I would like and cannot (unfortunately) simply be shaken off.
In order to grow, it seems I must embrace this discomfort of being vulnerable instead of my own tried and tested avoidance strategies, such as doona therapy. Paradoxically, I have found, it is the reliance on these avoidance strategies that attempt to sidestep suffering that prove to be the actual culprit suffocating the human spirit.
This embrace can be difficult for anyone, especially those who are emotionally sensitive so experience heightened responses to feeling exposed. I hope Exposed emotes this lived experience in an abstract way. For example, through the intense colour palette and contrasting tactility of materials, evident in the use of bubble wrap and the well known sensory association of popping it.
In order to grow, it seems I must embrace this discomfort of being vulnerable instead of my own tried and tested avoidance strategies, such as doona therapy. Paradoxically, I have found, it is the reliance on these avoidance strategies that attempt to sidestep suffering that prove to be the actual culprit suffocating the human spirit.
This embrace can be difficult for anyone, especially those who are emotionally sensitive so experience heightened responses to feeling exposed. I hope Exposed emotes this lived experience in an abstract way. For example, through the intense colour palette and contrasting tactility of materials, evident in the use of bubble wrap and the well known sensory association of popping it.
Work in Progress - An assemblage in Home Grown: The Tenacious Realm exhibition, Incinerator Art Space, Willoughby
Responding to the curatorial theme of The Tenacious Realm considering how community can be resilient to future shocks and chronic stresses, Work in Progress explores marginalisation and mental health challenges via social abstraction.
The tumour of objects can be seen to mimic the vicious thought cycles that often accompany mental health challenges and perpetuate social isolation and loneliness. The repurposing of found objects into the artwork giving the futile, thus, discarded objects, a second chance at life, is symbolic of the way we shun fellow humans that we deem as no longer functional within our mainstream ableist society.
Conversely, the entanglement of odd materials could illustrate the notion of finding one’s tribe and the strength drawn from belonging. This metaphor, via the entire visual conglomeration, can be extended further to presume the responsibility of the community at large to accept diversity.
Those living with mental health issues know it is an ongoing challenge, however the role of society in unravelling stigma and embracing our differences and individual uniqueness can aid in social integration - as the title suggests it is a work in progress.
The tumour of objects can be seen to mimic the vicious thought cycles that often accompany mental health challenges and perpetuate social isolation and loneliness. The repurposing of found objects into the artwork giving the futile, thus, discarded objects, a second chance at life, is symbolic of the way we shun fellow humans that we deem as no longer functional within our mainstream ableist society.
Conversely, the entanglement of odd materials could illustrate the notion of finding one’s tribe and the strength drawn from belonging. This metaphor, via the entire visual conglomeration, can be extended further to presume the responsibility of the community at large to accept diversity.
Those living with mental health issues know it is an ongoing challenge, however the role of society in unravelling stigma and embracing our differences and individual uniqueness can aid in social integration - as the title suggests it is a work in progress.
Outside Looking In - An installation in Future Abstract exhibition, Art Space, Chatswood, part of Vivid Ideas
Outside Looking In is a site specific installation that surveys 33°47′44″S 151°11′00″E - The Concourse at the heart of Chatswood, where it was assembled and exhibited for Future Abstraction, a curated Vivid Ideas' exhibition. The industrial materials and angular forces of Chatswood's expanding cityscape lend itself to the geometric abstraction that covers the multidimensional planes external to the gallery space and, therefore, separate to the other artworks comprising Future Abstract. Using Google Earth technology, digital imagery of the surveyed area was employed as a ‘rectified readymade’, allowing for a rudimentary beginning to a process of abstraction.
Outside Looking In subverts the conventional pictorial plane, utilising the wall, floor and functional glass gallery door as the artworks ground, expanding beyond the physical confinements of the gallery. It maps space via intervention of the physical location it dissects, pulling the viewer through ‘open walls’, across the floor and around corners. The artwork coexists within the architectural confines and functional signage of a transitory public space, the lobby, situated on the outside of a few destination spaces, and operates as a thoroughfare in order for people to arrive at these destinations, including the art gallery and theatre. The viewer is immersed in the space hopefully becoming aware of their position in relation to the artwork alongside the space’s logistical signage.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” - Viktor Frankl
More subtle, is Outside Looking In as an emotional response to navigating personal identity and the internal, and at times external, struggles that are endured along the journey to self acceptance and authenticity. The title hints at the feeling of exclusion and inferiority, yet this is contrasted by the confidence imbued by the formal composition. For example, its physical expansiveness and dynamic nature from the positive shapes and forms, rebounding across previously empty surfaces and, thus, activates the negative space where it exists, occupying space rather than trying to shrink into a corner in an attempt to go unnoticed. This out and proud quality is evoked further by the loud polychromatic palette.
Outside Looking In subverts the conventional pictorial plane, utilising the wall, floor and functional glass gallery door as the artworks ground, expanding beyond the physical confinements of the gallery. It maps space via intervention of the physical location it dissects, pulling the viewer through ‘open walls’, across the floor and around corners. The artwork coexists within the architectural confines and functional signage of a transitory public space, the lobby, situated on the outside of a few destination spaces, and operates as a thoroughfare in order for people to arrive at these destinations, including the art gallery and theatre. The viewer is immersed in the space hopefully becoming aware of their position in relation to the artwork alongside the space’s logistical signage.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.” - Viktor Frankl
More subtle, is Outside Looking In as an emotional response to navigating personal identity and the internal, and at times external, struggles that are endured along the journey to self acceptance and authenticity. The title hints at the feeling of exclusion and inferiority, yet this is contrasted by the confidence imbued by the formal composition. For example, its physical expansiveness and dynamic nature from the positive shapes and forms, rebounding across previously empty surfaces and, thus, activates the negative space where it exists, occupying space rather than trying to shrink into a corner in an attempt to go unnoticed. This out and proud quality is evoked further by the loud polychromatic palette.
In Situ - A collaborative installation at Articulate, Leichhardt, with Jo Morrow + Belinda Wincote, created and exhibited within the confines of the gallery space and three week time frame Photographs: Ella Ottaviano
