STILL / SILENCE - mixed media installation 2021
FNQ Contemporaries - January-March 2022 - Cairns Art Gallery
FNQ Contemporaries is an exhibition that has been initiated to support the new Cairns RSL Art Gallery Artists Fellowship Program. The progran allows regional artists to be selected to participate in the exhibition and to be considered for one of the three Fellowship Awards being offered this year. 2022 version included Simone ARNOL, Andrew BONNEAU , Madge BOWEN, Gertie DEERAL & Wanda GIBSON, Rosey CUMMINGS, Dorothy & Amanda GABORI, Naomi HOBSON, Shaz SPANNENBURG, Rose RIGLEY, Yixy RUAN, Jimmy Kenny THAIDAY, Daniel WALLWORK, and Jason WEGGER.
STILL (ink wash drawings on Arches Aquarelle 300gsm paper, 76 x 56 cm each)
After my mother died, I could not bear to part with her everyday possessions. Using the time-consuming process of ink wash, her objects are recorded, emerging from the paper in accurate detail, digitally catalogued in hand-drawn QR codes, and bagged and tagged as if scientific specimens. The artworks' size belies the item’s ordinary-ness, as an indicator of their importance to me and as a daughter’s commitment to remembering.
SILENCE (mixed media installation - encautic, found objects, 2500 hand-made bags, book pages, twine)
Even though time has passed and the cupboards at my Mother's house are long gone, the memories from her life still hold my attention, still spill out into the uncomfortable space between greif and recollection. The fullness of her absence in these everyday rememberings and in the poignant nature of her remaining objects means that I am driven to create works for her and with her. We move together - me present, she absent - in a collaborative frenzy - stitching, stuffing, binding - to what feels like a necessary end.
STILL (ink wash drawings on Arches Aquarelle 300gsm paper, 76 x 56 cm each)
After my mother died, I could not bear to part with her everyday possessions. Using the time-consuming process of ink wash, her objects are recorded, emerging from the paper in accurate detail, digitally catalogued in hand-drawn QR codes, and bagged and tagged as if scientific specimens. The artworks' size belies the item’s ordinary-ness, as an indicator of their importance to me and as a daughter’s commitment to remembering.
SILENCE (mixed media installation - encautic, found objects, 2500 hand-made bags, book pages, twine)
Even though time has passed and the cupboards at my Mother's house are long gone, the memories from her life still hold my attention, still spill out into the uncomfortable space between greif and recollection. The fullness of her absence in these everyday rememberings and in the poignant nature of her remaining objects means that I am driven to create works for her and with her. We move together - me present, she absent - in a collaborative frenzy - stitching, stuffing, binding - to what feels like a necessary end.
Images: Michael Marzik