Cutting-edge Art today, as the society from which it is derived, is for the most part blatantly self-seeking, bawdy and cynical. Since this is the only era I have lived in, I honestly do not know if things have ever been different….or better. However, I do feel out of sync with my peers and at odds with their world views on more than one occasion. If I would have to be a Cress or Gosper or Min Mae or Madonna to become noticed, I would not compete. By the way, I will not link their websites…if you are interested, you can find them yourself.

I was asked at the Launch if the progression in size in walls held any significance. Here is the text as found in the catalogue.

The shortest design of nine (9) is based on my birth home, from which the houses progressively rise in height, like kitchen canisters. Each having a wooden letter on its front which when all are set out in order, spell ‘container’. On the inside are the same letters, except for one, thus spelling out ‘contained’. This seems to amplify the theme of community splace. – linking the sacred of the home to the sacred of the cathedral.

The Launch at Maryborough was the site of a brief public performance of art. Participants were handed blue ‘aprons’ to wear during the artist’s talk. Later I explained that the aprons were suggestive of community relationships and ‘the ties that bind’. Each person could take one of the ties on the apron they were wearing and tie themselves to each other or the installation HAUSTAFELN [a German word meaning ‘household duties’]. This signaled joining society and being part of the essential culture at hand. People enjoyed this hands-on aspect and it seemed to make the art come alive for many. Besides that, it was fun!

The aprons allowed eight ways to connect to each other, thus accounting for ‘Eightprons’ as coined by my sons on the day.

I think Robert Owen’s work entitled Untitled (breath) in Spill at ARC ONE GALLERY in Melbourne also references community and he must be fond of blue as well. I am flattered to think that this work looks much like one I could have created….if you are familiar with my interest in text, acrylic sheeting cut outs and blue.

This is a good question asked at the Talk. I am not quite sure what got me into text at first. I will have to think about that a bit more…

But I am interested in not just the actual ‘letter’ itself but the space around the letter as one can not exist without the other. This is a different take to the work of New York artist Jenny Holzer who projects white English text [taken from an author’s Polish poetry…more comment to make here from my point of view] into a dark gallery space and relies on the meaning of words to communicate a message. This is a metaphor for community where we all serve a purpose to create the large and small picture.

related site: ACCA

So, the majority of my family in Melbourne joined me for Launch! How nice! You may think this is expected of an artist’s family but I assure you that there are many excuses available to the children of an artist if they do not want to be in attendance!

Since moving to Wollongong last year, my dependant family almost immediately decreased from nine to three. It was a huge shock to the system, not to mention the food and phone budget!

Thank you Josiah, Phil and Sharaya, and Patience for being my local, mobile Fan Club. Most appreciated. As we discussed in the car on the 2.5 hour drive back to Melbourne, we think the attendees were more receptive of my art and the messages behind it because I brought my progeny for ‘show and tell’.

After all, one cannot be the grande allusive artist with rowdy people at her tail and to tell tales.Thanks, once again for sharing this important day with me!

Related Website: One Apron at A Time at University of Wollongong

The day has come! A wonderful and crowd arrived for the Artist’s Dialogue and stayed for the Launch Formalities. For the first time I met Ian Tully, whom I have corresponded with for years, and his sweet wife Annie. They travelled over three hours to join in the fun. I was very impressed.

Ian was the illustrious Opener and his speech emphasized the importance of this work ‘being seen’. I agree that the tactile intrigue and mix of 2D and 3D makes B, B & B quite a delight in real life…offering plenty to tease the mind and eye.

Though people are generally moving away from the religion found in churches and in fact, are not drawn to churches as places of spirituality, Ian commented that they are very keen to buy churches as a space to construct their homes. This is true. I think people who would not be found dead in church…or maybe only dead…. still respect the ‘sense of spirituality’. I must think more about this…

Someone I spoke to later about the ‘churches as houses’ comment said it was about the large, open space on offer. This may be true too but to say ‘I live in a old church’ brings more intrigue than to say ‘I live in an old factory’.

Housing and a ‘sense of the spiritual’ is the topic for Darren McGinn at Craft Victoria. It has long been the interest of Greer Honeywill, too, at Flinders Lane Gallery

Question received at Central Goldfields Art Gallery on 13/2

‘The significance of the Angels/Butterflies wings with the jewelled clips?’ Beryl Allan.

Dear Beryl,

Good question! Perhaps you will have time to return to B, B & B and have a close look at Celestial Inversions The Book as it is the key to understanding the pinned gold wings…Often we come to exhibitions with our minds made up as to what art we will like or tolerate. The same holds true about spirituality. This art invites you to consider these biases as ‘bugs’ to the system.

Have you ever visited a natural life museum and inspected the drawers of insect specimens, neatly documented with obscure differences? This was the inspiration for these ‘pests’ which infect society – interesting to consider but poisonous in possible magnitude if not eradicated. The jeweled pins represent the scientific categorizing and the idea that we unwittingly often pride ourselves / pin ourselves to the most damning aspect of our personal outlook.

Currently Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne, offers a stark movie and still image installation by internationally famous young Afghan artist, Lida Abdu. I quote from her exhibition statement ‘Art is a petition for another world, a momentary shattering of what is comfortable so that we may become more sophisticated in reclaiming the present. The new wandering souls of the globe, stubborn, weak, persecuted, strong, will continue to make this art as long as people believe in easy solutions and banal closures.’ The art I saw was sophisticated yet uplifting, poetic and demanding. Abdu saw her country change through the disaster of war and is capable of seeing regeneration and hope. I admire her for this.

Prof. Maureen Ryan and I are to hold a Dialogue at the Launch about hope and home using the everyday images found in my art. We are speaking similarly about ‘reclaiming the present’ as Abdu – but to an audience even more difficult to impress with the looming social problems of living in the comfortable world of a peaceful Australia.

Website

Related website: Maureen’s gallery

Comment received at Central Goldfields Art Gallery on 12/2

‘(B, B & B) Gave me a feeling of community and how much I love my mother. Saw it as a community piece,  not religious. Thought the placemats were wonderful artworks. Didn’t think much of the aprons -more of an older, mum type thing. Anon.

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for the comments. Glad the exhibition related to your thoughts of community and your mother. I believe most definitely that there is a role for religion to play – apart from community and of course, visa versa. But as religious significance and symbols diminish in our current society, so necessitates the need for new images to convey / construe the spiritual. This is why I look at the community as an indicator of belief. Suggesting ‘community’ is less fraught with preconceived ideas than an attempt to portray ‘religion’….or is it?

Women’s work often goes unnoticed but it joins the generations with a specific lettering of culture. Wearing one’s history – like putting on an apron – is easier and harder than may be realized. But the past can conceal a future bias.

Living Museum