Felicity Powell at The Wellcome Collection

'... wax gives rise to thoughts of mortality; it burns, it melts down, it suggests the vanity of the world, the weak candle flame of hope, the deliquescence of flesh. The material implies organic change ... Wax cheats death, it simulates life; it proves true and false ... " (Marina Warner, from Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphors, and Media (Oxford Universty Press, 2006).

On Saturday, along with our friends Barbara and Sue, we paid our very first visit to the Wellcome Collection in Euston Road. It certainly won't be our last.  The current temporary exhibitions Mexican Miracle Paintings and Felicity Powell's Charmed Life - The Solace of Objects were both stunning, two of the most memorable we've seen here. 

Powell's exquisite wax images on circular black glass (actually the backs of mirrors) are essentially her response to the Wellcome's collection of over 1400 amulets or charms that were amassed by amateur Edwardian folklorist Edward Lovett. 

Her exhibition also incorporated an installation of a selection of these amulets grouped loosely into categories, including hearts, miniature shoes, horse shoes, etc. Some were beautiful, some like the dried mole's feet sheep's heart with pins and nails rather less so. Still, it was possible to sense the potency all of these much touched objects must have had for their original owners.

Images from top:
Water, Stars, Antlers, 2006
Tentacled, 2006
Spaghetti Head, 2006
All wax on glass, 5.9 cm/15 cm diameter

Leighton House

In the 70s I lived for some years in the Holland Park area of Kensington. Nineteenth century Leighton House was a leisurely and scenic walk away, through beautiful Holland Park. It was (and still is) one of my favourite places. The house is named for its original owner, the Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). It was designed by George Aitchison, although Leighton added extensions and alterations over the next 30 years.

Justifiably, it is best known for the extraordinary Arab Hall, which displays Leighton's astonishing collection of over a thousand Islamic tiles, most which he brought back from Damascus in Syria.

Other interiors incorporate equally opulent peacock feather-coloured tiles by William de Morgan. Leighton's impressive studio, with its huge northern facing window, dome and apse, are located on the first floor. Paintings and drawings, mostly by Lord Leighton, are on view throughout the house. It is several years since I last visited, and it was even more gorgeous than I remembered, with the added bonus of an additional room being open to the public: Leighton's pretty, but (compared to the rest of the house) small and relatively simply furnished bedroom.

Leighton was one of the leading High Victorian artists, and walking around his house is uncannily like stepping into one of those impossibly exotic paintings that typified the era. I'm not as much an admirer of his work as I am of this house, which in my opinion is his masterpiece. Never much of a minimalist myself, for me a visit there is always a sheer delight.

Pictured above, from top: Leighton House (exterior view) and two views of the Arab Hall.

London and a visit to Kenwood House

Being back in London feels like being home. It's been wonderful reuniting with old friends with whom I share so many memories and revisiting old haunts, including the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, the National Film Theatre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Leighton House, the Dover Bookshop, London Graphics Centre (an amazing art supply shop in Covent Garden) and many other places. Visiting both Tate Galleries has included long walks along the Thames, still majestic, still enduring. It's as if I have never been away (even though I have, for far too long). 

On October 10 my Australian friend Leigh Hobbs and I made our pilgrimage to Kenwood House to visit the William Larkin portraits that we both admire so much - it was a very special day. The photos shown here don't do them justice (not that reproductions ever do). Because of staff shortages, they can only be viewed between certain hours. Those hours can change on a daily basis, so calling Kenwood in advance is advised. 

We still haven't toasted our good fortune with great champagne (see previous blog entry)  but now that my partner Shane has arrived in London, the three of us have a date to do just that at the Savoy Hotel on Thursday evening.

Images from top:

Pilgrim's Progress: DK and Leigh outside Kenwood House (photographs 1 and 3 by Leigh Hobbs)

Leigh 

Leigh and DK 

Diana Cecil, Countess of Oxford (1614) by William Larkin

Isabella Rich (1614) by William Larkin

Dorothy Cary, later Viscountess Rochford (1614-18) by William Larkin 

Leigh, lost in admiration among the Larkins

Leigh, Contre-jour

While I'm away...

Before I head off to London on Friday, here is an advance notice of the group exhibition Exchange, which includes the two works directly below. Exchange is curated by Amanda van Gils.

 Blue Triangle Winged Woman, 2010, linocut, 32 x 32 cm, ed. 30

Photographs by Tim Gresham

Ulysses Butterfly Winged Woman, 2010, linocut, 32 x 32  cm, ed. 30 

For full details, click onto the poster.

Facebook members can click HERE for updates; to follow the show on Twitter, click HERE.

The group exhibition Familiar Unfamiliar at c3 contemporary art space opened yesterday evening and runs until 16 October. The exhibition celebrates the 45^th anniversary of the Print Council of Australia and was guest curated by Rona Green. It will tour to Tweed River Art Gallery, NSW in 2012 and Swan Hill Regional Gallery, Vic in 2013. To revisit the work I made for this show, see Blog Post Friday July 21.

I will also be participating in the group exhibition In Suspense at Hand Held Gallery, which will run from 3 – 30 November. I have made two new zines, including Girls in High Places #1: Rope Trick
(pictured below).

For full details and a preview of both works, visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

In the meantime, this is something I have to look forward to in London. I'll be meeting up with an Australian friend who loves the William Larkin paintings at Kenwood House just as much as I do. He has just sent me this Larkin reproduction, along with the message that if we both make it there with everything that's been going on lately (including the threat of further strikes at Qantas) "...we must toast our good fortune with some GREAT champagne." Right on, Leigh.

Richard Sackville, Earl of Dorset

by William Larkin

Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide

Just before my exhibition at Woodbine Art opened, my partner Shane and I paid a flying visit to Adelaide, where we spent a day at the exhibition Saatchi Gallery in Adelaide – British Art Now at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Aside from Tracey Emin, whose poignant installation My Bed (1998) was also included, the remaining 41 artists are largely unknown in Australia. As with any show on such a large scale and with such a diverse range of work, some engaged me more than others. Of course this is all subjective. Overall, it was a fantastic exhibition. Because of time limitations – I’m flying to London on Friday - I’ve only included a handful of the artists whose work made an distinct impression on me, although there were a great many more.

From top:
Images 1-4 Sculptures by Jonathan Baldock, 2007, salt, dough, pins, ribbons, doll's eyes, polystyrene, colouring paint, synthetic hair. Collection Saatchi Gallery, London
Image 5: Artist Tessa Farmer
Images 6-9: Details from Swarm, 2004 by Tessa Farmer, mixed media, vitrine, 208.3 x 243.8 x 68.6 cm (entire installation.) Collection Saatchi Gallery, London
Image 10: Viewing Swarm (photograph by Shane Jones)
Images 11: A Joan Crawford Alphabet, 2007, by Donald Urqhuart, acrylic on canvas, 215 x 300 cm. Collection Saatchi Gallery, London
Image 12: Detail from A Joan Crawford Alphabet

Exhibition opening at Woodbine Art Gallery

The last seven days have been incredibly busy, culminating last night in The Wonderful Printed Things Fair at the Abbotsford Convent. It's hard to believe that this time last week I was at the opening of Re-evolution, my solo exhibition at Woodbine Art Gallery. Thank you so much to everyone who came, with special thanks to Gallery Director Anita von Bibra, her partner Henry, their family, and last, but far from least Damian Kelly, General Manager of the Print Council of Australia, who so memorably launched the event.

As promised, I've selected some highlights from the opening:

Shane Jones, DK, Catherines Pilgrim and Heng, Austin Haywood;
in background: Jock Clutterbuck

From left: Patricia Gillard, Rosemarie Jones, James Taylor, 
(centre;) on far right Damian Kelly and Jan Lancaster

Foreground: Ralph Moran and Shane Jones
Background RHS: Noela Stratford, James Taylor,
Anita von Bibra and Louise Taylor

From left: Henry and Anita von Bibra listen 
attentively to Damian Kelly’s opening remarks

From left: Lisa Barmby, Catherine and Euan Heng

 

From left: Wendy Stavrianos, James and 

Rosemarie Jones, Patricia Gillard

Jenny Nestor

DK with Craig Gough and a bouquet from 
Jenny Nestor’s garden

From left, DK with Penny Peckham, who wrote the 
 catalogue essay, and Anita von Bibra

The Jones family: Rosemarie, James, Frank and Patricia Gillard

Woodbine Art Gallery and Re-evolution

Top image: Woodbine Art Gallery, Malmsbury.

The remaining photographs were quickly snapped before the launch of Re-evolution. Selected highlights of the exhibition's lively opening will be posted shortly.

Re-evolution invitation

Click on the invitation above for full details of the exhibition. Do call in if you are in the area at the time of the launch on Sunday 4 September, or during the show's run.


Dr. Penny Peckham's accompanying essay is reproduced below, with her kind permission.


Re-evolution 

Deborah Klein’s art has long reflected an interest in narrative, in storytelling, particularly stories in which female characters are central. Early prints relate to stories of female saints; others portray scenes relating to film noir. From childhood she has been fascinated with fairy tales, folk tales and fables, particularly those dark and rich in symbolic motifs - the traditional and those given a contemporary twist by writers such as Angela Carter.

As early as 2000 Katherine McDonald drew a parallel between Klein’s female subjects and butterflies, observing that in ‘depicting women as anonymous specimen like creatures, Klein seems to be inviting us to view the decorated heads as a connoisseur/collector might study the outer wings of a pinned butterfly, with little regard for the inner being’.[1] To extend the metaphor, moths and butterflies are often seen as symbolic of the ephemeral nature of life – beautiful and fragile, fleeting – and so too female youth and beauty. 

The general title of this recent body of work, Myth-Entomology, refers to Klein’s dual interests in story-telling and insects.  Metamorphosis (from pupa to moth or butterfly, human to insect) and hybrid creatures often feature in the kind of tales that are of particular interest to Klein.  The earliest of the works were created for the 2008-9 exhibition, The enchanted forest- new gothic story tellers. Curator Jazmina Cininas selected the earlier multi-panel painting, Swarm (from 2000), in which sixteen species of butterfly are paired with rear view ‘portraits’ of sixteen elegantly coiffured women. Participating artists were invited to also make new work and, partially inspired by her reading of A.S. Byatt’s Angels and Insects, Klein painted the first of the Moth Mask series.

But are her Moth Masks and Winged Women hybrid creatures – part human, part insect – or do the women wear the insects as adornment or disguise?  Like many of Klein’s previous female subjects whose faces have been veiled by lace or tattooing, turned away or cropped from the picture frame, so the faces of the Moth Mask women are largely hidden by exquisitely-rendered moth species, mostly from the Indo-Australasian region.  As the moths vary in size, shape, colour and patterning, so now each of the women are portrayed as distinct individuals.  Klein has said that each moth was chosen to match each subject, not as fashion accessories, but as extensions of themselves. She sees the moth masks as ‘magical’. They are ‘real’ moths that in part perform the function of masks,[2] as well as being something like the daemons in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.[3]

There is also something magical about the eight Enchanted Hair Ornaments prints, which link back to earlier works in that the women wear elaborate hair combs - in the form of various insects and one spider - in their intricately knotted hair. In the Winged Women linocut prints the protagonists also face away from the viewer and the focus is again upon their hairstyles – braids, rolls and chignons – and the delicately hand-coloured butterfly set high on the back of each. 
  

The idea of artists as storytellers (as suggested by the full title of the Enchanted forest exhibition) was the catalyst for Klein to begin to write stories herself. The first of these - ‘The enchanted hair ornaments,’ ‘The Story of the Moth Masks’ and ‘Swarm’ were directly inspired by pre-existing works, while others are contemporary, feminist rewritings of traditional fairy tales. These stories, illustrated by works from her back catalogue, are collected in the book There was once…

Dr Penny Peckham

---

[1] This observation may well have been inspired by the painting Lace Butterfly 2000, in which the rear view of a woman’s elaborated coiffed head is teamed with a butterfly-shaped piece of lace. Katherine McDonald, ‘Woman’s Other Visage’, Private Collection, Australian Galleries exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, 2000.

[2] http://netsvictoria.org.au/deborah-klein/

[3] email to the author 27 July 2011. In Pullman’s series of books, a daemon is a manifestation of a person’s soul.