Fiona Harman Rm1
Ailsa Waddell Rm2
Brooke Hyrons Window
Opening 13 March 2020
Exhibition continues until 19 March
Room 1 : Fiona Harman - Beside Still Waters
The paintings for Beside Still Waters are based off photographs and drawings of the Shoalhaven River in New South Wales, near where Harman undertook a four-week residency in late 2019. Water is a leisurely destination in Australia. Going to the beach, river, pool or dam is commonly thought of as a relaxing past time. These watery locations are also places of story and myth, where people are lost, creatures lurk and thresholds are met. These paintings explore the space between what is real and imagined, intimate and cold, familiar and strange. The meditative consistency of the patterns harken to spiritual metaphors of water as a conduit for insight and understanding. Yet, there is disquiet in the opaque black void beneath the rippled patterns where something lingers beneath. The murky, tannin-stained depths of the river allude to both the fear and seduction of the unknown.
Fiona Harman is a visual artist based in Perth. She has completed a Bachelor of Fine Art with First Class Honours and a creative research PhD at Curtin University. She has participated in residency programs across New South Wales and Western Australia including Artspace, Bundanon Trust and the Fremantle Arts Centre. Harman has held four solo exhibitions and been curated into over 15 group exhibitions in Victoria and Western Australia. Her work has been acquired by the City of Joondalup art collection.
Room 2 : Ailsa Waddell - “Slip, a Wrestle”
Concrete is a steady, stable and readily available material. It comes in a bag, often from a dusty storage space in a hardware store. The dry powder can shift and move with ease. When you add water to its powdered state, it becomes slippery, but also restricted. It reminds me of how I feel resting in water. Concrete begins to shrink, dry and take on the surface it clings to. Sometimes it can be strong, sometimes it can be brittle.
A wrestle, this hurts at times.
A wrestle. Take a step back.
A wrestle, a movement. Slipping over, concentrate.
Slipping beside the surface of the water, you can’t help but to leak over the edges. You work hard to wrestle, to not allow that slippage to take over. It’s physical, learn to let your limbs roll. Shoulders back, flex your toes. Grounding, but slippery. Taking control needs intensity, I need intensity. But it’s painful to not allow yourself to become slippery.
Ailsa is an emerging artist working and living on Whadjuk Noongar land. They have a process-based practice currently involving concrete, writing and drawing.
“Slip, a Wrestle” stems from being uncomfortable. That pinching feeling from a belt that keeps riding up or maybe that hot day when you forgot your shoes. Ailsa likes intensity and pace; it keeps them together. But it’s unsustainable, remember to take a step back.
Window : Brooke Hyrons - A Call For Connection
A Call For Connection is an installation piece created through repurposing recycled materials to give way to an ethical and sustainable practice. The works have been reformatted and sewn to include the remains of recycled items, such as seams and darts from clothing items. Many of the materials hold the shape and wear of the previous owner, referencing the intimate connections and experience one associates with their clothing.
Brooke Hyrons is a Melbourne based artist, engaged in a multi-disciplinary practice. Expanding from a background in painting, Hyrons uses coloured threads and fabrics to create intuitive and discrete forms on her portions of material, often recycled and sustainable. The intimate nature of her practice calls for viewers to attentively investigate the work for information and gestures, bringing them to a place of calm. Poetic and gestural, the artist also participates in historical principles of craft and new age practices of ethical art construction.