Reimaging Social Fabric to bring out its “live, laugh, love”.
It is on show at Mask – the art of concealing and revealing at Artemisia Gallery and Event Space.
The old story is the same story, but it is archived and replaced with a fresher sister. We are wired to fill in the gaps and cover over what we don’t like or understand. We use mythologies and masks on ourselves and we place them on others. A young woman was murdered, and for the last eighty years, she has been labelled by what she was wearing: chinese yellow silk pyjamas. Social fabric.
A digital print starts with the police reconstruction of her face, beautified by the BodyTune app and framed in white.
And she was on my mind before; Social Fabric was first seen in 2020.
The Pyjama Girl case starts outside of Albury in 1934 where a young woman is bashed, shot, dumped with a bag on her head and then set on fire. She remained unidentified. She was stored in a bath. Her already damaged face was distorted again with artist impressions and published including in the new technology: the colour magazine. The Pyjama Girl became Linda Agostini and her husband was tried and later deported. There is uncertainty about the identification and conviction.
The tendrils of this case weaved itself into the community moving out across the country using the veins of the Press and over time our need to fit this into our values made her as big as Phar Lap and Ned Kelly. Social fabric.
Respect to Linda Agostini, Anna Philomena Morgan and the Pyjama Girl.
Birmingham of Australia casts a twenty-first century lens across 1930s Footscray’s aspirations, where wealth and community were forged, in part, from black tyres on albeit stolen lands. The subsequent assessment and redevelopment of Olympic Tyres and Rubber Company point to how we constantly layer and rewrite our heroes and histories.
It is an encaustic monoprint augmented by acrylic inks.
An encaustic monoprint is a single print where I placed a 30cm by 30cm khadi paper square on a hot palette. Then I responded to the print with acrylic inks.
Throw Cushions is a series of works exploring how the home is not a place of safety. It showed at Alternating Current Art Space from 25 March – 23 April 2022.
Plumping Cochineal is a lipstick advertisement broken into its primal elements. The lipstick appears here as wax and cochineal shell. The black is the lipstick case. The text is the carved lines. An advertisement wouldn’t be complete without the perfect pout modelled by Linda Marie!
My exploration of lips and makeup started in 2019. As the works came into being, I created a naming convention using a beauty business name generator to create titles that places the works as bluntly as commercial products.
Hokusai Fellatio and Plumping Cochineal at Alternating Current Art Space
Vermillion Borders
Flesh, rock, lip, sea.
Vermillion Borders maps our emotional cartography. A vermillion border is the line around your lips separating skin and lip. What is outside of the line? What is contained inside the border?
Linda explores our relationship with the land through surreal landscapes, where my arts practice is based on ways of communication and complexity in life. Their practices use ink, watercolour and graphite on paper (both), digital and encaustic (Fiona), and oils and text (Linda). Vermillion Borders is a series of mixed media works unified by a limited colour palette of red, black and white and careful curation. The works were generated by one artist producing a starting point and sending it to the other to complete: creating a true integration of both artist’s practice. The stages were completed in isolation so that each cannot influence the other’s response to the original.
The works were mapped to gallery space at Alternating Current Art Space to fit into the walls, ceiling beams and the energy flow to and from other shows.
“A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”
Trophy Heads: Marilyn jumps from Marilyn Diptych (1962) by Andy Warhol and his preoccupation with celebrity beauty and consumption and mapping them as iconography. This ‘good idea at the time’ became a copyright issue where Warhol was sued not by Monroe or her estate but by the owner of “Niagara” film stills.
I created another copy of Monroe based on Marilyn Diptych and buried her in layers of encaustic wax symbolic of her humanity. The act of scrapping to reveal her shows that we will only find versions of what we believe is her.
Trophy Heads: Marilyn was a prototype for Trophy Heads,
Trophy Heads
We place people on pedestals and on spikes.
“Trophy Heads” is a series of works that takes its leave from the human preoccupation with taking and displaying others to serve a purpose: the Shuar blocking a vengeful spirit by severing their enemies’ heads and shrinking them, Khaled al-Asaad’s murder by ISIS to many a head put on a spike.
I dug into my preoccupations to explore the nature of celebrity and how we need to make them Trophy Heads or to put a line around it.
I realise my work is complicit in trapping these people in a moment.
Vermillion Borders
Flesh, rock, lip, sea.
Vermillion Borders maps our emotional cartography. A vermillion border is the line around your lips separating skin and lip. What is outside of the line? What is contained inside the border?
Linda explores our relationship with the land through surreal landscapes, where my arts practice is based on ways of communication and complexity in life. Their practices use ink, watercolour and graphite on paper (both), digital and encaustic (Fiona), and oils and text (Linda). Vermillion Borders is a series of mixed media works unified by a limited colour palette of red, black and white and careful curation. The works were generated by one artist producing a starting point and sending it to the other to complete: creating a true integration of both artist’s practice. The stages were completed in isolation so that each cannot influence the other’s response to the original.
The works were mapped to gallery space at Alternating Current Art Space to fit into the walls, ceiling beams and the energy flow to and from other shows.
“A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”
Hokusai Fellatio was one of the first works completed under the auspices of Vermillion Borders. Linda Marie created a series of ink works using decalcomania technique. One of the reactions to this series of acrylic ink paintings was that they were ‘restaurant’ quality and not leaning towards Hokusai. I pondered the works and thought about the second last time I saw Hokusai. I was vastly amused to see National Gallery of Victoria didn’t include this genre in the show.
I responded with my technique, wearing Paloma Picasso Mon Rouge, a birthday present from a dear friend, giving the work the second half of its title.
Hokusai Fellatio in situ at Alternating Current Art Space
Vermillion Borders
Flesh, rock, lip, sea.
Vermillion Borders maps our emotional cartography. A vermillion border is the line around your lips separating skin and lip. What is outside of the line? What is contained inside the border?
Linda explores our relationship with the land through surreal landscapes, where my arts practice is based on ways of communication and complexity in life. Their practices use ink, watercolour and graphite on paper (both), digital and encaustic (Fiona), and oils and text (Linda). Vermillion Borders is a series of mixed media works unified by a limited colour palette of red, black and white and careful curation. The works were generated by one artist producing a starting point and sending it to the other to complete: creating a true integration of both artist’s practice. The stages were completed in isolation so that each cannot influence the other’s response to the original.
The works were mapped to gallery space at Alternating Current Art Space to fit into the walls, ceiling beams and the energy flow to and from other shows.
“A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”
Vermillion Borders maps our emotional cartography. A vermillion border is the line around your lips separating skin and lip. What is outside of the line? What is contained inside the border?
Vermilion Borders is a conversation between Linda and I, where the singular creative processes and preoccupations of two experienced artists meet removing the line between them to create new lands, boundaries and borders.
Linda explores our relationship with the land through surreal landscapes, where my arts practice is based on ways of communication and complexity in life. Their practices use ink, watercolour and graphite on paper (both), digital and encaustic (me), and oils and text (Linda).
Vermillion Borders is a series of mixed media works unified by a limited colour palette of red, black and white and careful curation. The works were generated by one artist producing a starting point and sending it to the other to complete; creating a true integration of both artist’s practice. The stages were completed in isolation so that each cannot influence the other’s response to the original.
A film of the installation at Alternating Current Art Space
“A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”
Pyjama Girl could be the ultimate Trophy Head. A young woman was murdered, and for the last eighty years, she has been labelled by what she was wearing: her Chinese yellow silk pyjamas.
The Pyjama Girl case starts outside of Albury in 1934 where a young woman is bashed, shot, dumped with a bag on her head and then set on fire. She remained unidentified. She was stored in a bath. Her already damaged face was distorted again with artist impressions and published including in the new technology: the colour magazine. Mum told me stories about reading these magazine articles avidly at the time.
The lines and borders of this case wrapped around the community linking across the country using the mechanism of Press. Over time our need to map her to our values made her as big as Phar Lap and Ned Kelly, and like them, a subject of an awkward movie.
Respect to Linda Agostini, Anna Philomena Morgan and the Pyjama Girl
Ars
‘Trophy Heads’ is a series of processed drawings set in wax. The drawings are based on an image significant to the Head and then worked up in graphite and charcoal on Chinese rice paper. Drawings were soaked in wax to create a skin. These drawings were layered on top of each other and then photocopied and soaked in wax. This process was repeated several times with a final dip into wax. The monoprints were framed in black and displayed on the wall.
Wax is a component of lipsticks and charcoal used as eye liner by the Egyptians. Layer up graphite and rice paper links to ancient practices of art.
The images were taken from Social Fabric my response to making a mask during 2020 lockdown. The spilt faces were already manipulated by the police artists in the 1930s and then by me with the PerfectMe app.
The lines of Trophy Heads map to Marilyn Diptych (1962) by Andy Warhol and his preoccupation with celebrity beauty and consumption and mapping them to religious icons. Another boundary crossed was appropriation and copyright where Warhol was sued not by Marilyn or her estate but by the owner of “Niagara” film stills.
I realise my work is complicit in trapping these people in a moment.
Trophy Heads
We place people on pedestals and on spikes.
“Trophy Heads” is a series of works that takes its leave from the human preoccupation with taking and displaying others to serve a purpose: the Shuar blocking a vengeful spirit by severing their enemies’ heads and shrinking them, Khaled al-Asaad’s murder by ISIS to many a head put on a spike.
I dug into my preoccupations to explore the nature of celebrity and how we need to make them Trophy Heads or to put a line around it.
Vermillion Borders
Flesh, rock, lip, sea.
Vermillion Borders maps our emotional cartography. A vermillion border is the line around your lips separating skin and lip. What is outside of the line? What is contained inside the border?
Linda explores our relationship with the land through surreal landscapes, where my arts practice is based on ways of communication and complexity in life. Their practices use ink, watercolour and graphite on paper (both), digital and encaustic (Fiona), and oils and text (Linda). Vermillion Borders is a series of mixed media works unified by a limited colour palette of red, black and white and careful curation. The works were generated by one artist producing a starting point and sending it to the other to complete: creating a true integration of both artist’s practice. The stages were completed in isolation so that each cannot influence the other’s response to the original.
The works were mapped to gallery space at Alternating Current Art Space to fit into the walls, ceiling beams and the energy flow to and from other shows.
“A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”
Marianne Faithfull came to mind where I heard that she was ill with COVID. Then I went to know what to know; her music and mythologies, and how her work is enveloped by them; though I am pleased to see she uses these stories and songs as her legacies and money. Then her time in Australia and the press photos and articles around her time in 1969 is telling and creepy. These are for another time.
A few years later, in 1973, Marianne became one of Robert Mapplethorpe’s polaroids. Again, someone with so much to say; her sitting in silence, fully engaged as the role of sitter photographed by someone who could empathise is intriguing.
Ars
‘Trophy Heads’ is a series of processed drawings set in wax. The drawings are based on an image significant to the Head and then worked up in graphite and charcoal on Chinese rice paper. Drawings were soaked in wax to create a skin. These drawings were layered on top of each other and then photocopied and soaked in wax. This process was repeated several times with a final dip into wax. The monoprints were framed in black and displayed on the wall.
Wax is a component of lipsticks and charcoal used as eye liner by the Egyptians. Layer up graphite and rice paper links to ancient practices of art.
The images could be something they said to a loaded image that piqued my interest.
The lines of Trophy Heads map to Marilyn Diptych (1962) by Andy Warhol and his preoccupation with celebrity beauty and consumption and mapping them to religious icons. Another boundary crossed was appropriation and copyright where Warhol was sued not by Marilyn or her estate but by the owner of “Niagara” film stills.
I realise my work is complicit in trapping these people in a moment.
Trophy Heads
We place people on pedestals and on spikes.
“Trophy Heads” is a series of works that takes its leave from the human preoccupation with taking and displaying others to serve a purpose: the Shuar blocking a vengeful spirit by severing their enemies’ heads and shrinking them, Khaled al-Asaad’s murder by ISIS to many a head put on a spike.
I dug into my preoccupations to explore the nature of celebrity and how we need to make them Trophy Heads or to put a line around it.
Vermillion Borders
Flesh, rock, lip, sea.
Vermillion Borders maps our emotional cartography. A vermillion border is the line around your lips separating skin and lip. What is outside of the line? What is contained inside the border?
Linda explores our relationship with the land through surreal landscapes, where my arts practice is based on ways of communication and complexity in life. Their practices use ink, watercolour and graphite on paper (both), digital and encaustic (Fiona), and oils and text (Linda). Vermillion Borders is a series of mixed media works unified by a limited colour palette of red, black and white and careful curation. The works were generated by one artist producing a starting point and sending it to the other to complete: creating a true integration of both artist’s practice. The stages were completed in isolation so that each cannot influence the other’s response to the original.
The works were mapped to gallery space at Alternating Current Art Space to fit into the walls, ceiling beams and the energy flow to and from other shows.
“A map tells you where you’ve been, where you are, and where you’re going — in a sense it’s three tenses in one.”
