Quicksand

Work continues in earnest on the group exhibition Wonder Room at Maroondah Art Gallery. There is still much to do before we hang the show on October 15, but progress has definitely been made. Last night at a meeting with fellow artists Rona Green, Paul Compton and Heather Shimmen (four out of the five WR crew) I was privileged to see some of their fantastical Wonder Room artwork and thrilled to get a real sense of how our collective vision is beginning to converge: the show’s title is certainly apt.

Here is another of my own humble contributions. Quicksand is from a suite of fourteen miniature silhouettes. (See also previous blog post that features the first in the series, Tall Poppies).

Like Tall Poppies, Quicksand also served as the basis for a one-of-a-kind vertical concertina book, which is also destined for Wonder Room. The artwork for both books has just been completed. To preview them in their unbound state, visit Moth Woman Press HERE. 

Pictured left: Quicksand, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 12.5 x 7.5 cm.   
Photograph by Tim Gresham.

Spring Blooms: Tall Poppies

Previewed in this post is Tall Poppies, one of fourteen newly completed miniature silhouette paintings that will make their debut in the group exhibition Wonder Room in mid-October. The series evolved directly from the miniature paintings and unique artist books that were exhibited in my solo show Tall Tales at Hand Held Gallery back in July.  

It is the introduction of selective areas of colour that most markedly differentiates this series from the earlier paintings. This, and their tall, narrow compositions, aligns them more closely with the vertical concertina artist books. Like the previous, even more diminutive black on white silhouette paintings, several of the new works, including this one, will serve as the basis for an artist book. To see the artist book Tall Poppies in progress, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Pictured left: Tall Poppies, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 12.5 x 7.5 cm.

More exhibits for a Wonder Room: Insect Women

This post features watercolour reproductions of several newly discovered species. These diminutive insect women will be housed in a miniature plan cabinet, which will in turn reside in my burgeoning personal Wunderkammer. They are related to the Moth Masks showcased in my blog post of June 7. 

The Wunderkammer (also known as a Cabinet of Wonder, or Wonder Room) originated in Renaissance Europe and was a forerunner of museums. Applying modern terminology, exhibits in these extensive, eclectic and frequently eccentric privately owned collections could generally be grouped under categories including Archeology, Geology, Ancient History, Art, Religious Relics, Ethnography, Antiquities and Natural History. Many examples of the latter were wondrously fantastical, for example, unicorn horns or the equally dubious Vegetable Lamb of Tartary.

Unnatural history specimens such as these were precursors to the similarly improbable exhibits later associated with P. T. Barnum's American Museum, which opened in January, 1842 - most notably, the grotesque mummified ‘‘Feejee” Mermaid pictured on the right (in reality, a monkey’s torso joined to the tail of a fish). Barnum’s museum of oddities (which also included a flea circus) was a precursor to carnival sideshows.

Since childhood I’ve been attracted to science fiction movies of the 1950s and 60s, including The Fly (1958, d. George Langelaan) and The Wasp Woman (1959, d. Roger Corman). Although not primary sources, these films have undoubtedly exerted some influence on the current work.

The series also reflects my long-term engagement with British portrait miniatures; indeed, these are among the smallest images I’ve yet produced.

This is my first sustained effort with watercolours, although I’ve been drawn to them for some time. When in London towards the end of 2011, I bought a set of Winsor and Newton Artists’ Watercolours. I’m finding the new medium challenging, hugely pleasurable – and rather addictive.

Pictured above, left: 

Adalia bipuntata insect woman

Pictured below, from top:

Bombus lucorum insect woman

Dicronorplina derbyana insect woman

Lycus insect woman

Zycrona caerulea insect woman
All works 2012, A7 (approx 10.5 x 7.5 cm) on handmade Khadi paper. 

Exhibit for a Wonder-Room

Moth Masks, acrylic on papier-mâché masks - a work in progress. Individual masks: (H) 22.5 x  (W) 18 x  (D) 11 cm. Photograph by Tim Gresham 

This ongoing series of painted objects is one of several projects that, when combined, are intended to evoke a Wunderkammer, or ‘wonder-room’.

The work also draws from my personal mythology, primarily the fairy tale The Story of the Moth Masks.

A perennial inspiration is the enigmatic imagery of Surrealist artist René Magritte, whose oeuvre also encompassed painted objects. He first began painting on bottles such as those pictured here in the 1940s, which skilfully incorporate the technique of trompe l’oeil. At present, I’m reading Magritte A to Z (Tate Publishing, 2011, edited by Christoph Grunenberg and Darren Pih.) It has already become a key text. I very much share Magritte’s continuing fascination with notions of the double, metamorphosis, anonymity, disguise, the fictional character Fantômas and much else besides. The book has reminded me of how fundamental Magritte’s imagery and ideas are to my own work, perhaps more than those of any other artist.

Pictured left: Painted bottles by René Magritte, 1959