International Moth Week

The last week of July is International Moth Week. As my contribution to the celebrations, here is a small selection of mysterious masked Moth Women. To find out how they got their moth masks, click HERE.

Agathia pisina Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel, 112 x 76 cm. Photo: Tim Gresham

Aictis erythozona Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel, 112 x 76 cm.
Photograph by Viki Petherbridge

Anthela oressarcha Moth Mask, 2009, oil pastel and Chinagraph pencil, 112 x 76 cm
Photograph by Tim Gresham

Attacus Atlas Moth Mask, 2007, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 20cm. Photo: Viki Petherbridge

Campylotes desgonsini Moth Mask, 2007, oil pastel, 112 x 76cm
Photograph by Viki Petherbridge

Coscinocera hercules Moth Mask, 2009, acrylic on canvas, 25 x 20 cm. Photo: Tim Gresham

Dudgeonea actinias Moth Mask, 2009, acrylic on canvas 25 x 20 cm. Photo: Tim Gresham

An Interview on ART-STUFF

Lace Face, 1996, linocut, 46 x 30 cm

The artist/writer Steve Gray has just interviewed me for his ART-STUFF blog. Other recent interviewees include the painter Shane Jones and printmakers Rona Green and Deborah Williams. The site is packed with interviews of this calibre and Steve has many more planned. I highly recommend his blog, which is an essential resource for students and art lovers alike. Steve encourages ART-STUFF visitors to share their responses to the interviews; there's a "leave a comment" button at the bottom of each post.

My interview has now been published. It's generously illustrated with images old (see above) and new. You can read the interview by clicking HERE.

Two-faced Woman shortlisted for 2013 Geelong Print Prize

Two-faced Woman, 2013, linocut with Chine-collé and hand colouring 37.5 x 28 cm.
Photograph by Shane Jones

The rear view head 'portraits' that dominated my work for well over a decade were first unveiled in the solo exhibition Private Collection at Australian Galleries, Melbourne in 2000. Katherine McDonald's accompanying catalogue essay was perceptively titled Woman’s Other Visage.

It has been several years now since my protagonists turned again to face the viewer. Almost invariably, however, they wear masks, frequently in the form of moths. In Two-faced Woman hair and mask iconography are combined, creating the illusion of an individual with a second self whose eyes watch us as we watch her back.

This work has had a lengthy period of gestation. It was conceived during a residency at the Art Vault in 2011, but put on hold when several other projects intervened. Meanwhile, it became the basis for a drawing of the same title, which was a finalist in the 2012 Rick Amor Drawing Prize.

Two-faced Woman, 2012, pencil and pastel,
75 x 56 cm. Photograph by Shane Jones

The Moth Woman Vigilantes Unmasked, 2012, zine, folded from A4 sized paper. Photograph by DK

The unfinished linocut was also the primary inspiration for a limited edition illustrated zine, The Moth Woman Vigilantes Unmasked, 2012. Having spawned so many other images, the original Two-faced Woman is finally about to stand in its own right. Recently completed, it has just been selected as a finalist in the 2013 Geelong Print Prize.

Printing Two-faced Woman at Ballarat, 2013. Photograph by Shane Jones

Endings and Beginnings

Foreground right: Red Bodied Swallowtail Winged Woman and Emergent Cicada Woman, 2013, linocuts, hand coloured, 22 x 18.5 cm. 
Borders and Crossings, Art Gallery of Ballarat. Also pictured, from left: works by Anne Langdon and Melissa Proposch. Photograph: DK.

This weekend brought a couple of endings that are also beginnings.

We had a steady stream of visitors and some very lively conversations during the final day of Tall Tales. But for much of the work, this was just the first step. An extended version of the artist book installation will be included in Wonder Room, a forthcoming group exhibition at Maroondah Art Gallery, which opens on 17 October.

Although today is the last day of Borders and Crossings, the Goldfields Printmakers exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, this too is only its first stop. The exhibition will shortly head to Scotland for the IMPACT 8 Printmaking Symposium at the University of Dundee (28 August – 1 September). And in 2014 the show will travel to Wharepuke Gallery in New Zealand. (See also Blog Post Tuesday, May 14, 2013).

My two linocuts in Borders and Crossings (pictured above in situ at the Art Gallery of Ballarat) are part of a small portfolio of ‘unnatural history’ prints, a work in progress also destined for the Wonder Room exhibition. 

A Short Time to see Tall Tales

Join me on the last day of TALL TALES at Hand Held Gallery, next Saturday, July 6, between 2.30 - 5pm
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

As Tall Tales enters its final week, we are experiencing very mixed feelings: thrilled that the show has had such a fantastic response, but equally saddened that this will be Hand Held Gallery's very last exhibition.

Although I've been regularly popping into the gallery, Megan tells me that a lot of visitors to the show have been disappointed not to see me there. I'm very sorry to have missed you. To try and make up for it, I'll be in the gallery on the final day, Saturday, July 6, between 2.30 and 5 pm. Your invitation (not that you need one!) is above. If you are free, we'd love you to join us.

For those countless others who are sad to be losing this unique gallery, find about about Megan's post-Hand Held plans HERE. 

Turbulent Times

Weather Girl, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographer: Tim Gresham

Megan Herring of Hand Held Gallery told me that on the opening night of Tall Tales many people were taken with this miniature silhouette, apparently amused by the way it paralleled the veritable tempest that was raging outside at the time. (As the cliché beloved of hoary old melodramas goes, it was a dark and stormy night).

On Wednesday afternoon Tim Gresham took some installation views of the exhibition. He also photographed this work, which had somehow slipped through the net when he documented the rest of the series prior to the show. Tim promised to email me the images later that afternoon. In fact, they were waiting for me when I got home. It was then that I first learned of the extraordinary political upheaval that was taking place. As we know all too well, it resulted in the disgraceful ousting of our Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Viewed in this context, the painting now seems to be about an entirely different kind of tempest. But this storm won't blow over so readily. And this time there is nothing to be amused about.

Tall Tales: Installation Views

Tall Tales is now very much up and running. We've already had an impressive number of visitors, including groups of secondary and university students. 

The artist book The Maiden Flight (below, third from left) has been acquired by the University of Melbourne's Baillieu Library, Tree House (below, sixth from right) was acquired by the State Library of Victoria and the State Library of Queensland has acquired Eve's Apple (pictured fourth from right).  

In addition, the State Library of Victoria and Baillieu Library have each acquired a copy of the limited edition mini-zine Card Sharps for their permanent collections.

For more about the exhibition, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

 

 

Pictured from top:

Artist's books: installation view

Artist's books (detail)

Shadow Women miniature paintings. Photographer: Tim Gresham

Shadow Women (detail). Photographer: Tim Gresham

Tall Tales - Opening Night

Amongst the lively crowd on the opening night of Tall Tales were a great number of old friends, many of whom I hadn’t seen in far too long. But we forgot to get the camera out until just before the gallery lights went out and the doors were locked. A handful of loyal, patient souls (not all of them shown here) stuck it out until the very end. It was great to catch up properly with most of them afterwards at that marvellous time-honoured Melbourne institution, the Waiter’s Restaurant. 

If the quality of the snapshot above isn’t as good as it could be it’s because Tim Gresham, who usually photographs my artwork, didn’t take it - he’s in it. Pictured from left: Julia Boros, me, Tim Gresham and Gaye Britt.

Above, from left: Diane Soumilas, Rose Matassoni, Dean Bowen, Catherine Heng, Terry Matassoni and Euan Heng in the Paramount Arcade outside Hand Held Gallery,

Tall Tales at Long Last

It was quite extraordinary watching Hand Held Gallery Director Megan Herring hang the Tall Tales exhibition. Never in my exhibiting history have I known an exhibition hang to come together so smoothly.

Now, after a marvellously buzzy and crowded opening night on Thursday, June 13, Tall Tales is up and running.

Pictured below are some snapshots of the installation in progress. For more detailed information about the exhibition visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Miniature silhouettes: installation in progress. With Megan Herring.

A very happy DK pictured with Megan Herring directly after the installation of the miniature silhouettes. Photograph by Shane Jones.

Megan completing the installation of the Tall Tales artist's books

Card Sharps

Card Sharps, 2013, artwork for zine (detail) ink and acrylic on playing cards

Earlier today I collected the miniature silhouette paintings for Tall Tales from the framers. The books have been bound, the invitations sent. On Sunday evening we will hang the show.

It's sad to think that my first solo exhibition at Hand Held Gallery will be their last. I've been exhibiting my books there since 2009, when they took some copies of There was once...The collected Fairy Tales soon after it was published. 

I bought my very first zines from Hand Held, including several by its Director Megan Herring. Not long afterwards I began making some of my own, beginning with A Short Book about Long Hair. Other zines soon followed. I've been making them ever since and have sold them exclusively through the gallery. It's fair to say that I owe this facet of my work, which gives me such satisfaction and pleasure, entirely to the creative association I've had with Hand Held Gallery. 

To mark the occasion of the gallery's final show, I'm making a small limited edition zine called Card Sharps. The artwork is now complete. All that remains is for it to be photocopied, cut, folded, signed and numbered. A detail is pictured above. When the zine is folded, these images will appear on its back and front covers. For more about Card Sharps, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Happy Birthday, Lotte Reiniger, Part 1

In 2011 a longtime dream of mine was fulfilled when I visited Berlin for the first time with my partner Shane Jones. We stayed in historic Charlottenburg, which, unlike many other parts of Berlin, wasn’t completely obliterated by air raids in World War II. But it was far from unscathed.

In the 1920s the Kurfürstendamm area of Charlottenburg was a magnet for artists, writers, musicians and composers, including Otto Dix, Alfred Döblin, Gottfried Benn, Else Lasker-Schüler, Bertolt Brecht, Max Liebermann, Stefan Zweig and Friedrich Hollaender. This came to a tragic and untimely end, however, with the rise of the Nazi Party.

It was only after I returned to Australia and started focusing on her work more fully, that I discovered that Chalottenburg was also the birthplace of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger (1889-1981).

From late last night into the early hours of this morning I sat at the computer sourcing online images and stills from Reiniger’s films. As regular visitors to this blog will be aware, it was her silhouette animations, in particular her masterpiece The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1922) that were the point of departure for my own silhouette imagery. With a forthcoming show that showcases this new direction in my work, it seemed timely to revisit her work here.

I’m not sure what time it was – perhaps 1.30 or 2 am – before I also noticed that today is actually the anniversary of Reiniger’s birthday, making this post doubly significent.

To learn more about Lotte Reiniger and her extraordinary achievements, click HERE.

To see some of Reiniger's shadow puppets, see Happy Birthday, Lotte Reiniger, Part 2 on Moth Woman Press HERE.

The restored version of The Adventures of Prince Achmed debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. The poster and a series of stills from the film are pictured below.

Tall Tales bound for Hand Held Gallery

My artist's books have all been bound and now await their debut at Hand Held Gallery on 13 June.

Pictured below: One of a kind artist's books, 2013, ink and acrylic on Khadi paper, 80 x 15 cm (open). Photograph by Tim Gresham.

For full page spreads of these and others in the series, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Final paintings for Tall Tales show

Pictured below are the last of the Shadow Women paintings destined for Tall Tales, my forthcoming exhibition at Hand Held Gallery.

From top:
Predator, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm; and
Homarsupial, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographs by Tim Gresham

Homarsupial was also the basis for a unique artist's book of the same name. To preview the book, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Borders and Crossings

A Goldfields Printmakers exhibition: Art Gallery of Ballarat, Australia, University of Dundee, Scotland and Wharepuke Gallery, New Zealand.

Borders and Crossings was co-ordinated by James Pasakos, Lecturer in the Visual Arts, University of Ballarat and curated by Dr. Loris Button, Antoinetta Corvin-Behrer and Dr Carole Wilson, Honours and Research Degrees Co-ordinator - Creative Arts, University of Ballarat. Following its launch at the Art Gallery of Ballarat (see below) the work will be exhibited at Impact 8, the International printmaking conference at the University of Dundee, Scotland (28th August – 1st September 2013):

Foregrounding the inherent experimental and interdisciplinary nature of print practices Impact 8 will provide a critical and interactive platform for the varied interests that make print such a unique discipline.  From its hybrid roots in industry and scholarship, through traditional design applications and fine art practices to its consistent significance within emerging technologies and theoretical debate – print continues to play a crucial role in the exploration of borders and crossings – be they geographical, ideological, cultural, theoretical or practical. (1)

Two of my prints have been curated into this group show. They are part of an ongoing series of "unnatural history" illustrations in which the border between human and nature has not only been crossed - it has also been obliterated. Sadly, the highly evolved creatures that inhabit this brave new world can only survive in the realms of mythology, folk tales and fairy stories.

Borders and Crossings will be launched on Sunday, 26 May from 2 - 4 pm

Art Gallery of Ballarat

Gordon Victor King Gallery

40 Lydiard Street North

Ballarat VIC 3350

Telephone: 03 5320 5858

Gallery hours: 10 am - 5 pm daily.

Dr Jennifer Jones-O’Neill, Deputy Dean Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Education and Arts, University of Ballarat will give the opening address.

The exhibition concludes on Sunday, July 7.

Borders and Crossings will travel to Wharepuke Gallery, New Zealand in 2014 (further details to be announced nearer the time).

(1) From Impact 8 website.

Pictured above, from top: 

Emergent Cicada Woman, 2013  and Red Bodied Swallowtail Winged Woman (Second State) 2013, hand coloured linocuts, 26 x 14.5 cm and 22 x 18.5 cm respectively (image size). Photography by Tim Gresham.

More Mysterious Maps - The Sketchbook Project, Part 2

In this post, additional Secret Sites of the Shadow Women are revealed. They have a distinctly seaside theme, which reflects something of my own history. I grew up in  St. Kilda, a beachside suburb of Melbourne. During the years I lived in London, the sea was one of the few things about Australia that I missed. Maybe this is why I became (and steadfastly remain) so attached to London's River Thames.

The Mysterious Map fourth from the top is called Shipshape. Its title comes courtesy of my friend and fellow artist Deborah McMillion-Nering, who lives in Arizona, which is in the desert. 

The final image (photographed by Tim Gresham) shows the complete directory of Mysterious Maps. The book now resides on a shelf in the Art Library, Brooklyn (call number 214.1-10, if you ever want to check it out).

To see inside the book - and save yourself the airfare to Brooklyn - visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Mysterious Maps - The Sketchbook Project

Earlier this year I signed up for the Sketchbook Project, coordinated by Brooklyn Art Library. The book is now completed and on its way to Brooklyn, New York. Each year there are several designated themes; the one I eventually chose was Mysterious Maps.

In June the Mysterious Maps sketchbooks will set off on a mobile tour to Providence, RI (June 13) Portland ME (June 14) and Montreal QC (June 16) before returning to Brooklyn and joining the permanent collection of Brooklyn Art Library.

My sketchbook, The Secret Sites of the Shadow Women, comprises a series of fantastical silhouette figures drawn in a range of artist quality black felt pens onto pages cut from a 1982-83 Gregory’s Melbourne Street Directory.

Some of the drawings are featured here. To learn more about this project and for a sneak peek at the book, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.