EMMA KIRSOPP

Truth

2012-01-20T21:06:00.001+11:00

Truth is a rising river
And words sink like mouldering slums along its banks.
As each sorrow will unfold another sorrow
And each dream unfold another dream, unending
Let joy slip, finite as the light that drops
Into full and heaving water

2011-12-17T03:10:00.001+11:00

Words blew open a chest
and words closed it again.
And, taking you further away, fastened it shut
though it bleeds still from time to time
in private moments.
And public ones.

Sweep

2011-11-27T22:03:00.003+11:00

Lose, find, search and stare.
Roll in, slide out, uncoil and deepen
Arrive departed, both endless and finite.

Full head and empty mind
spinning relentlessly.
Never remembered again.

Distance and Time

2011-11-03T21:22:00.002+11:00

It is because the world is so round that absence pounds so strong

It is because there is so much water dividing the land

sinking deep as the earth's own core

that our voices miss and fall, so much out of time

And when finally one does hear another, it is only the reflected echo, bounced off the impossible ocean

Distorted by the different skies that light our eyes

All that was built in language and written into our certainty

Has been flawed by distance and by time.

I fall.

The World (in my coffee)

2011-10-23T10:40:00.003+11:00

new works

2011-10-02T17:37:00.004+11:00

Terrain - 2011

Mixed media on Hahnemuhle paper

Transference - 2011

Mixed media on Hahnemuhle paper

Waterwait

2011-09-19T21:50:00.002+10:00

Because the last trace to fade is always that of scent

it will linger, a disrupted afterburn of a different place

where time, measured in the meaning of another, bleeds across two worlds.

Not even an echo survives this vacuum

And the fabric that holds it tight,

a precious seam in a dusty mine

of memory made real, is gradually corrupted

As time between now and now is lengthened

by the waterwait of interfering distance

embrace this pale signature, lost so soon

2011-09-04T12:40:00.002+10:00

The night will close around this forest like a dark hand around a soft and silent throat.

I love you and I don't know why.

For each cell that spins inside your body is identical to those that all crowd this tender space.

I love you and I don't know why.

Its your visage alone, flickering dark, then light, then dark again

With the thousand changing attitudes sweeping over and across, as distant as clouds

Unsettling my own fixedness, with cold wind and shadow.

I love you and I don't know why.

This narrow vacuum....

2011-08-27T12:23:00.003+10:00

One definite gesture....

2011-08-16T07:16:00.002+10:00

...against the specter of loneliness

and the pursuing beast of nothingness and nobody,

of which even your bright conviction shall not repel.

And as a single voice ignites a world whose foundations lie deep in the words of a drowned girl

and in which ideology is carved from a narrow corner of dissatisfaction

to be cultivated in some nightmare garden

You will observe, no more, the gap created in an absence,

That empty socket pining for a tooth

Making your rough return to a place you destroyed as a child

and devoted your life to its reconstruction.

At the centre of reason there is a tree that always flowers

2011-08-14T14:13:00.005+10:00

...But its not a destination

Even if the stolen boat of your body, tagged and fallible, brings you close.

Acquaint yourself now with this fragile alliance of air and skin that you name existence

While shimmering interstices that thread wetly

And join one thing to another are dissolving

Understand that never again will you warm yourself by the sun's other face.

Letting It Out and Letting It In

2011-08-04T10:36:00.009+10:00

I love city parks, that small stretch of "wild" in the middle of the civilised space. Though it is manicured, hedged and ordered it still allows for a little of the natural to seep into the domestic.

The park opens the door to something else, making available a refuge (as sunny lunchtime spent out of the office) as well as a savage and dangerous place (an ill advised shortcut home after dark).

And once nature takes root in the city like this, it infiltrates every corner and ledge. It will not be restrained and there is no controlling it. It has been let in.

Opening the door to this twin aspect of danger and refuge is a strong impulse in my work. I am letting out a little of the uncertain and the unmeasurable interior onto the demarcated and ordered surface of the world.

Proof

2011-07-31T07:47:00.001+10:00

The first artist proofs of One Road In and One Road Out have arrived. They are printed on A2 (60 cm H x 40 cm W) Hahnemuhle photo rag.

The anxious hours spent adjusting and mixing colour and light levels have paid off and the printed images are as close a match to their digital parents as I could have hoped.

This has been my very first experience (outside of university) with digital imaging and printing processes and I have learnt a great deal from it. I love it!

To Order the Chaos

2011-07-28T07:49:00.003+10:00

Of creative impulse. When those ten thousand ideas jostle and push around my mind, all crying as loudly as the next to be given a life, there is nothing I can do but open a clean page and let their words and images pour out.

Like all births, its messy and chaotic.

To Finish What Was Started

2011-07-18T12:50:00.004+10:00

And to wrap up the first stage of a project that was like no other... following that one road in and out of myself and bringing back all that which I found there. Pleasant and not so pleasant.

Over the next few days it is a world of test sheets, artist proofs, TIFF's, JPEG's, CMYK, RGB and other printing-speak as I get the work editioned.

In the meantime, my website has been updated to provide a clearer picture of how the work comes together.

Dialogues of Skin and Self

2011-07-01T14:00:00.011+10:00

Now it is time to paint yourself into the world

as that undefined space that is called self, or soul, or some such

will never quieten...

I began the One Road In and One Road Out project as an experiment in new ways to use the body in art. However, it quickly developed into a method of breaking through certain ideologies that had limited my art-making process to a bland formula of brush and canvas.

The images of One Road In and One Road Out are created by painting directly onto the body and documenting these “body paintings” with digital photography. Most of the work is undertaken alone and it is during the process of marking up skin and posing the body to ensure that the “painting” remain in focus that the art happens. This singular and private “performance” of a painted and struggling body is recorded in photographs that are then manipulated to emphasise the gesture of the work.

No escape from the discomforting body

...When flesh and blood no longer nourish

but fall as all flesh and blood does...

Just as our skin sits at that intersection between inside and outside, our self resides in the intersection of culture and nature. To navigate this confusing territory of identity, I investigate these intersections by creating a kind of synaesthesia between the imagined and the material experiences (the physical and the emotional scars) of the body. The paint I apply represents tidemarks and depicts the emotional residue left behind from the complicated experience of living.

Despite time spent applying and rubbing back paint and the work cropping and editing the photographs, it is the skin that truly dominates the project. It influences the process in so many different ways. Sometimes it is nothing more than the body's encasement and a (reasonably) stable surface on which to apply paint; it then reacts like the living tissue it is, reminding me of its role as facilitator of touch and each mark I make sensitises a complex surface of nerves, follicles, glands and scars; then it becomes a gateway, that porous membrane through which the world, despite our best efforts, passes in and out.

Only by painting directly onto the skin do I come to realise that the story of skin goes deeper than the surface which we see. With this complex medium, I need no theory to guide me. When I work like this there is nothing to say that has not been said, perfectly, a thousand times before.

Working directly upon the skin has been essential to stripping back any kind of art theory that would have otherwise waterlogged and killed the work. One Road In and One Road Out is my first approach to exploring things in an unlearned way. Though free from cultural hyperbole I continue to be fired up by the work of others that centres on issues of body and identity, such as Julia Kristeva's essays on abjection, Michele Serres' Five Senses, the tender and intimate photographs of Miru Kim and Jenny Saville's visceral paintings.

Carry the road on which you travel

Bound to it as you are

Across the doming surface of this world.

The paint Traces the wounds of the self and lays down a map of the body's existence and experience. Making a mark upon the body in this way is simultaneously an animal instinct, like marking out territory, and a cultural act where the body is decorated to remove it from its natural state.

The paint is smeared onto the skin. Cold and wet it runs into the cracks and wrinkles. Bright and dark liquid pools in the tiny pores and the multitude of scars, those miniature reminders of a rough and tumble childhood. I can feel the skin pinching into tight wrinkles as it dries. It cakes and I brush it off, leaving behind a stain I know will remain for a few days, adding another dimension to the story my skin tells the world.

Painting on the body's variegated form, not conceived or constructed for the specific purpose of art-making, could be likened to painting on the wall of a cave. There are dark and hidden areas, some parts will not allow paint to adhere to its surface. It is alternately concave, convex and always alive.
For this reason the paintings are abstracted, naturally distorted by the body's own ebb and flow and the gathering and dispersion of pigment. Many of the works look like a landscape seen from above, a satellite image of roads or rivers, like the natural and manmade paths that over time are cut across a country.

For the love of skin and all the marks it will bear for me.

Developed alongside the photographed images are a series of texts. The importance of words to One Road In and One Road Out has become apparent over the course of the project, not as supporting statements or dissertations, here the words are simply composed into short prose as the photographs are edited. There is a power in the interaction between words and images, a relationship that, in its simplest form, is represented by the illustrations in a book and highlights the storytelling aspect of skin itself.

By painting my story upon my skin and mapping out on its surface all that lies beneath, I am able to return to locations, both real and imagined, that are significant to myself. Pushing the boundaries of the body in art is how I know who I am and by literally painting myself into the world I can explore that place where self meets body.

Zero-Sum Game

2011-06-25T19:45:00.003+10:00

No escape...

2011-06-22T15:15:00.000+10:00

...from the discomforting body

bound to this earth

No reprieve from paying debts of a free heart and freer tongue.

When flesh and blood no longer nourish

but fall as all flesh and blood does

And the last remaining freedom form the stubborn impermanence of life

is your uninvented death.

Sometimes Words Are All I Have....

2011-06-19T20:29:00.003+10:00

...because the image is so entirely complete that to re imagine it would diminish its original beauty.

The importance of text has become more apparent to me over the last few months. When I make an image, in any medium and for any purpose, words, composed in poetic phrase develop around the creation of the image. They always have done. Until recently, though, I always disregarded the text.

My imagery is often inspired wholly or in part by a poem, essay or story. There is something in the interdependency of words and images that appeals to me. A relationship that, in its simplest form, is represented by the illustrations in a book.

This marriage of text and image also occurs the other way round; when I see something that catches my attention and makes me look again, my mind begins to compose words in response to this visual experience.

I am now allowing the words and images to develop side by side, supportive of each other but not exclusively codependent and no longer torn up and hidden away.

The Challenge of Clothing

2011-06-14T09:42:00.005+10:00

In the latest shoots for One Road In and One Road Out, I have been working with the clothed body.

I have always found clothes challenging as they can quite easily dominate an image and make the work look like a fashion spread. However, over the last few days I have managed to incorporate the clothes naturally with the body.

This is very exciting.

Getting the image right with clothes means I am no longer constrained by having to use nude models. I can push my work further and into very different directions.

Gathering the road

2011-06-07T22:07:00.004+10:00

How a Tin of Crayons Changed the World...

2011-05-31T14:13:00.004+10:00

...Well, changed the world for me.

One small tin of neocolor water soluble crayons (bought on special some years ago out of curiosity) a digital camera and skin, most often my own, have come together to construct One Road In and One Road Out.

It all springs from my sketch a day experiments of 2009/10 and has transformed the creative process of my work. Now, with these tools I am exploring the concept of using the body in art and, quite literally, painting myself into my work.

The next stage of One Road In and One Road Out, will involve painting myself into those places that hold a personal significance to me.

This is myself upon that one road, as I embed myself into both the physical and emotional spaces of this world.

skin begins...

2011-05-28T14:00:00.000+10:00

...closing over an old cut

and pink, lumpy flesh gathers at this long winter's edges.

It is not an ending that the body heals

but damage inflicted from being there at all

Shake loose now and face north.

So much time spent...

2011-05-25T13:28:00.009+10:00

...enduring that pounding chest

as frustration slathered like a wild thing and

impotent desire could not free itself and run.

Knowing the air is thinner outside than it is in,

though, there is some physical trickery that holds the flesh together.

Now it is time to paint yourself into the world

as that undefined space that is called self, or soul, or some such

will never quieten until the soot and ash are scraped off

against the pebbles of some waterless shore.

wrestling with the air

2011-05-22T18:33:00.008+10:00

Constructing my body of work, One Road In and One Road Out, involves painting on bare skin and then photographing the painted skin.

Aside from those occasions where I have a model with me, the work is done alone in the studio. I am at once make up artist, model, photographer and post production artist.

I work in front of two mirrors, rigged to see the area of my body I am applying the paint to. Then, twisting and turning my body so that the painted skin is in focus I fight the limitations of my own limbs as I reach above and behind to adjust the lense. Trying to hold my body still and keep from shaking, as I shoot.

After three or four shots in one awkward pose I dart behind the camera to double check I am still in view and that the right areas are in focus. Contorted and holding, waiting for the click of the shutter, it feels like I am wrestling with the air itself.

Pursuing those animal aspects...

2011-05-19T09:06:00.001+10:00

...of skin, hair, shadow and uncertainty.

Pulse

2011-05-17T13:24:00.008+10:00

Neck from Emma Kirsopp on Vimeo.

Empowering a static image with motion, the work pulses, breathes, lives. With motion, something new is created.

Form now realises itself within the dimension of time as well as space.

Mobilising

2011-05-15T15:13:00.003+10:00

The video "ghost 1" is my very first exploration of stop motion. This piece was created on my bathroom wall where each frame could be easily washed out and reworked on the tiles.

A visiting echo...

2011-05-11T23:40:00.000+10:00

...of a cry made a lifetime ago

that was shouted at the peak of a rusted swing's arc

against a distance too vast and a silence too long

from within an unfleshed chest

In a room too close with a silence closer still, is an echo.

Fading.

My brother...

2011-05-10T07:00:00.003+10:00

...drowned in that lake.

These words I spoke to my mother when I was too small to understand.

She only had daughters.

Limit(less)

2011-05-06T07:00:00.002+10:00

The work is created upon limitations.

Limitations of skill and technical ability with tools and processes, as well as limitations of opinions, experiences, fears, emotional maturity and sophistication.

However, a narrative thread stitches these limitations together, binding them firm to bring forth something greater than itself. The story then forms a whole from so many fragmented parts and a world is made.

The Fall

2011-05-05T07:00:00.003+10:00

Appleflesh

2011-05-03T07:00:00.002+10:00

Dredging words

With a sluggish brain and a sluggish will

It is simpler to give up and lie down.

In and out of sight, language takes shape into great black birds, vanishes.

Strong arms and stronger faces wrap memories within a mountain of skin.

Eyes looking onward while seeking that soft spot below and under and in.

Unlucky enough that with a million wings I would not fly but to jump anyway,

knowing there is no comfort where the body lands, its busted appleflesh browning in the sun,

but finding life in the fall itself.

An Artist, a studio, a camera and some art

2011-05-01T07:40:00.005+10:00

Enough words have been written to explain several lifetime's worth of art, ideas and creation.

When the work is at last free to speak for itself it is best to shut up and listen.

Nothing to Say...

2011-04-29T07:05:00.004+10:00

...that has not been said, perfectly, a thousand times before.

It settles...

2011-04-27T07:30:00.000+10:00

...in some sunny and disused corner of the self,

and germinates quickly like weeds in the city dust.

Compelled...

2011-04-25T07:22:00.002+10:00

...when the Hunger remains long after the body is sated. Like some caged thing that will pace and want and pant.

Never enough.

Not Enough Breath...

2011-04-23T12:56:00.007+10:00

...within those animal lungs, to fill all the words that are older than language itself.

Gesture...

2011-04-21T07:30:00.000+10:00

...or, the public display of the private experience of form.

Versipellis

2011-04-19T07:35:00.000+10:00

To live without is to live within...

always beneath that perfect, perforated and corruptible surface.

For the Love of Skin...

2011-04-17T18:11:00.005+10:00

...and the marks it will bear for me.

One Road In and One Road Out...

2011-04-13T12:45:00.006+10:00

...of that place inside.

Legs, those fragile pillars of bone and blood, won't carry you there, between and under and through the wild scratching things...

...home.

The World in Weirdness

2011-03-29T11:31:00.009+11:00

I have been using the Iphone application Instagram to create a series of preliminary "sketches" for my current body of work. The application allows you to run images through a selection of filters, creating really luscious effects.

I like this application so much because I can instantly visualise an image's possibilities (such as composition, lighting and texture) without spending hours in photoshop. To me, it is the digital equivalent of the blind contour drawing.

Following are images from the last nine months or so that trace a turbulent and often surreal time, depicting some of the happiest points in my life and some of the most traumatic. The Instagram filters have, quite by chance, imbued them with that sense of strangeness that I feel when I look back on them.

The place of Art in the City

2011-03-22T15:06:00.011+11:00

After a month overseas exploring opportunities and immersing myself in both London and Berlin, I am back home in Melbourne preparing for three months of intense studio work.

A stand out of my travels was visiting Tacheles , an artist cooperative (well, more of a cohabitation) in Berlin. A group of driven, talented people occupy what was, among many things, an old retail store in the Jewish quarter of Berlin.

The artists of Tacheles bring life, culture, energy and tourism to an otherwise fairly drab and commercial area of the city.

It is a fascinating place, grungy and uncompromising. The building is painted inside and out with graffiti and murals and visitors are welcome to explore the premises and see the artists as they work in their studios.

As in all things that sit outside of the boundary of what is "safe", Tacheles is under threat. They are on a prime piece of real estate and the developers are moving in.

It would be a tragedy to lose such a vibrant and dynamic cultural centre. A sad loss for Berlin, not to mention the artists who have established themselves there.

There is a place on their website where you can offer your support to keep Tacheles from being turned into yet another cluster of Starbucks and cheesy cocktail bars.

A Few Impressions

2011-03-04T18:44:00.003+11:00

A few images of London, from the last week.

It has been a good time for introspection, absorbing a new place, catching up with friends and meetings with sustainable procurement organisations.

New things

2011-02-24T05:19:00.010+11:00

The last few days have been spent wandering through an unfamiliar city under a grey sky, absorbing surroundings, art and culture and allowing myself to stand back and look at things from a different angle.

This is the first real time off I have had in a long time and I am slowly coming back to myself. I am moving at my own pace once again and though I have only been here a few days, I am falling in love with the city.

The next couple of days will be focused on upcoming meetings and the new directions they will allow me to bring to my work. I am very excited.

Location Independent

2011-02-18T11:42:00.011+11:00

As I navigate changes that still seem to be coming my way, I have stepped aside from my collaboration on The Mark as Promise Broken. It was a very difficult decision to make, though for many reasons a necessary one.

This weekend I fly to London where I will spend a couple of weeks as a stranger in a strange land. I have organised some meetings with Government and non Government sustainable development organisations to discuss experiences in sustainable procurement. I will then be heading to Germany before returning home.

It has been more than four years since I have been overseas and as someone who loves travelling as much as making my art, it has been way too long. So, as well as immersing myself entirely in the galleries and museums (particularly the Natural History Museum of London, where I can live out my dinosaur obsession) I will be taking the opportunity to disentangle my practice from a fixed studio location and begin working to see what develops while on the road.

I am always looking at improving my working methods to make them more manoeuvrable, less fixed and less resource hungry. In the past I have found that I work well when I travel and this year I have the opportunity to explore a lot of possibilities of combining the two.

A Better Day Tomorow - Forging a Path: 2

2011-01-23T19:29:00.000+11:00

This is the second post discussing the ways I managed to maintain a creative practice within an intense personal crisis. Following are a few of the things that helped me navigate my way through:

I abandoned my own tradition. I stepped away from what had become a standard approach to working, I held no expectations, I just wanted to put paint on to canvas.

I (finally) accepted that what I perceived as continual failure was an important process of keeping my skills honed until I was strong enough to do new and real work.

I fucked up. I seemed to repeat my mistakes. I did learn, eventually, that the work would click when it was ready to and not before. It was some weeks before I could finish a work to my satisfaction. It was definitely worth the wait.

Reassess. I continually questioned what it is that compels me to create and if it would be better to live without my creative practice until I got through the crisis. I realised that I could not go a day without it. This realisation, I think, was an important catalyst in my recovery.

Love. I allowed myself to feel it. I remembered it is why I create in the first place. It may sound corny, but love is often the first thing that is forgotten when the shit hits the fan. If a little time is given to this love each day, chances are creativity will spark up again.

I came to understand that it is a better day tomorrow. The gaps between crises lengthened and when things became a little busier and I established my new routine, I was looking both forward and back without wincing. That is a pretty damn good feeling.

Forward and Back

2010-12-28T16:57:00.009+11:00

The personal reflection of the last week in December is becoming an annual post on this blog, well, for the last two years at least.

This is an important time for me, usually more so than Christmas and New Years. Though for the first time in many years the few days of Christmas were spent reconnecting with family and reassessing myself and my personal relationships.

This week is a time I look both forward and back and the turbulence of 2010 has given me a great deal more to reflect upon than previous years. The last few months in particular have been some of the most emotionally chaotic in my life.

I did write earlier about keeping the creativity happening during times of crisis (part 2 of that post will be coming soon) and I have managed to do that to an extent, thanks in a large part to a creative collaboration with my sister, which has been redemptive, uplifting and an enormously positive influence at this time.

I am looking forward to 2011, as I can see that which I have been carefully building up over the past few years start to take shape.

Happy New Year.

Collaboration

2010-11-02T12:26:00.003+11:00

If you are wondering where I have been lately, you will find me here at Disinflection, a collaboration between writer and jeweller, my sister Alison Boyd, and myself.

Forging a Path: Part 1

2010-10-10T19:14:00.005+11:00

After a difficult few months I am learning (once again) to see the horizon as a brighter place than what lies behind me.

Earlier this year my long term relationship ended and I have been consumed with the tasks at hand, such as dealing with accommodation, administration, lawyers and the raw emotional dysfunction that accompanies these things.

I have found myself in moments of intense weakness and vulnerability. However, with some amazing friends and family by my side I have been able to move through this.

While the administrative side of my practice has lagged a bit, I have been producing and reworking paintings and actually making progress in the studio (once I had finally dragged myself away from single malt and Rimbaud).

This is not a redemptive post (its too late for me there), but the first in a series of posts about what I did to help me stay on track, at least in terms of creative output...

While it may not be divorce, there are moments in our lives of intense personal and creative crisis that can be difficult to navigate. A few things have helped me ride the wave and reach the other side with my practice more or less intact and I will post a list of these here, soon, in the hope that you may find them useful too....

Interlude and Balloons

2010-09-14T19:39:00.007+10:00

Early this morning as I left for work, I heard a noise like a dragon coughing (well, what I imagine a dragon coughing could possibly sound like). I looked up to see two hot air balloons just overhead. They were so close, the people in the baskets were waving to me.

I remember, when I used to travel from the other side of the city, I would see them from far away.

On such a clear morning I really wanted to be up there too.

Redback Spider

2010-09-11T21:59:00.002+10:00

Though it did take significantly longer than a month to complete, this is number 30, the last image in the body sketch-a-day series.

wing

2010-09-10T21:24:00.002+10:00

Antlers

2010-09-09T21:30:00.003+10:00

brambles

2010-09-08T20:34:00.004+10:00

More on the spring theme. This sketch-a-day represents the tangle of old autumn leaves, spring flowers, branches, washed up bits and pieces and new shoots that form into wild and beautiful bouquets.

Spring

2010-09-07T20:58:00.002+10:00

Over the past week, as I have been walking home, I've noticed that the blossoms are out on the trees. Their fragile pink and white petals against the dark branches are the inspiration for today's body sketch - a - day.

Sketch a Day resumes

2010-09-06T21:20:00.004+10:00

Here is the first of the six remaining body sketch-a-days.

This was inspired by the abstract pattern of shadows that fell across the floor this afternoon, cast from the light through the window.

Excavation

2010-08-21T22:05:00.010+10:00

Cleaning up and clearing out: a few images from the past decade...

New Ways

2010-07-04T17:20:00.002+10:00

A couple of years ago I posted about choosing a new path: http://emmakirsopp.blogspot.com/2008/06/pins-and-needles.html

Once again I am faced with new directions and the need to make some very important choices. This time the choices really do count.

progress images

2010-04-10T16:02:00.011+10:00

The latest silverpoint, Trunk, is finished. I have been posting images of its progress to my tumblr page.

A single stroke of the silver on the page leaves quite a light, sharp line. Pressing too hard with the stylus can cut the paper so the darker tones are built up using cross-hatching.

Trunk 2010
Silverpoint on paper

Fox

2010-02-22T20:14:00.015+11:00

fox 2010 - acrylic on canvas

Fox is the latest work to be finished in the studio and it continues my interest with animals as representative of human nature/culture conflicts and partnerships. These animals appear often in my work and symbolise my own attempts to connect with my ancestral heritage, like a European Dreamtime. Through their cultural connotations they reconcile some deep aspect of my past with my present and even future context.

The fox is a particularly strong figure for representing ideas of identity. It is both loved and despised: a prize to be pursued, a figure of cunning and wit (even used to describe a sexually appealing woman) and simultaneously a monstrous threat to the sanctity of both agriculture and the native environment. A pest to be eradicated.

It also serves as an unpleasant reminder that perhaps the native environment would be far more robust in resisting the fox invasion if it wasn't for our massive land-clearing that has so utterly compromised the native habitat to begin with.

To me, the fox walks in that liminal space between trophy and maligned feral. It is an effective totem on which we can project all our cultural joys and fears.

A Matter of Context

2010-02-14T18:30:00.001+11:00

A recent conversation with a colleague took a familiar turn when the subject of my creative background came up:
"what do you study in a fine art degree? How's that even a degree?

This question got me thinking and re-examining my experience and activities during university. Its a question I often return to with my decision to study at university being about a personal education, a means of repair rather than any significant academic contribution.

Studying art in an academic context does seem at odds with our current taxonomy of creative practices and it does beg the question: do creative subjects, particularly the fine arts have a place in the current university system?

Due to its subjective nature, perhaps visual art does not belong in the university structure of assessment and grading. In my experience the bell curve method was applied as some kind of surrogate for the lack of objectivity in the assessment process. It was also used as a defence if there were any dispute over results.

However, if art does not have a place in university then nor does any subject, be it education, philosophy medicine or political science as they are all at the mercy of those who study, teach, examine and administrate them. No academic field is free of the politics and agendas that seem as integral to university as students and lecturers .

If we ask what the average art student does with their time, we should also ask what the average science undergraduate contributes. Or a GP for that matter.

I'm not suggesting that medicine, science or any other subject be dismissed or devalued, rather when questioning higher education perhaps we should focus on on the qualities of the person, rather than the subject.

University is (or was - perhaps it still is) an ideal environment to coax an individual into reaching a greater potential to help achieve whatever it is they are capable of achieving. The classes are a means to an end, to provide that individual with a profession and the necessary skills to support themselves while they make their contribution to the world, what ever form it takes.

Intimacy - A studio update...

2010-01-10T13:27:00.015+11:00

World enough and Time

My work is about observing and recreating tiny instances in time, split second interactions that often go unnoticed yet can put a moment into context. Over the past couple of weeks I have been creating work that has been drawing on intimacy and moments of recalled contact, more so than usual and combining these observations with fragments of poetry from the work of Stewart, Elliot and Marvell (poets who I referenced repeatedly during university).

I'm always surprised how much these influences have contributed to my impulses to draw and paint over the years. Its as if I'm trying to illustrate some peculiar narrative inside myself without the need to really make sense of it. Working like this seems to be more about framing the questions, not about answering them.

I have also been giving more focus to working from memory and imagination rather than using references or models. This has revitalised my activity in the studio.

...braceleted and white and bare...

2010 Reviews

2009-12-28T14:16:00.001+11:00

As 2009 slides more or less seamlessly into 2010, I am anxious to see what will be on show around Melbourne when the galleries reopen.

Until then, here are a couple of favourite exhibitions I reviewed in 2009:

Karen Findeis ~ Sampler

Artist: Karen Findeis

Content: Jewellery, installation

Price Range: Most works from $110 to $1450

Exhibition: Gallery 3, Craft Victoria - 31 Flinders Lane Melbourne 3000

Dates: October 23 - November 28 2009

Karen Findeis "Entomoids"

Sampler is an exhibition of fine jewellery installations where miniature ornaments, pendants and broaches resemble an antique entomology collection rather than objects of adornment or fashion accessories.

In this show Findeis references the collecting phenomenon of the enlightenment, where the dissection and labeling of diverse elements was a way of ordering and controlling the chaos of the natural world. Along with this historical perspective, the miniature works also possess a more contemporary scientific sensibility as a few of the specimens depict isotopes, fabricated in precious metal and stone.

The objects in Sampler are at once eternal and transient. The permanence of the materials used in their manufacture is edged by the ephemeral nature of a museum collection, where without a great deal of care and restoration, the specimens will slowly and surely turn to dust. The works on show are more than beautiful trinkets, they are expressive and sculptural works of art.

My Own Private Idealogue ~ Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces

Artists: Joanna Langford, Peter Madden and Rohan Wealleans

Content: Sculpture/Installation and painting

Price Range: N/A

Exhibition: Gertrude Contempoary Art Spaces - 200 Gertrude Street Fitzroy

Dates: April 17 - May 16 2009

Peter Madden "Evil" 2005

My Own Private Idealogue is a fascinating display of personal mythologies, symbolism and histories that combines the work of Rohan Wealleans, Peter Madden and Joanna Longford.

Both Madden and Weallean’s work, situated in the main gallery, employs vast and dazzling constructions and collages of found objects and images, interspersed with intricate and beautiful biological gouache paintings. The detail in the work is as astonishing and intense as the conceptual impact of the stories that each piece presents. Throughout the show amid the intoxicating violence and beauty of internal experiences there seems to emerge a strange harmony, a balance is struck between form and space.

In the front gallery is “The Before Lands” by Joanna Longford. This installation holds a quieter yet equally ominous presence, containing all of the impact of Madden and Weallean’s work that is delivered through the sparse, clean lines of a miniature industrial landscape.

An installation constructed of recycled plastic bags, bamboo skewers and cardboard, “The Before Lands” combines the fairytale beauty of a cement factory at night with a deeply unsettling post-apocalyptic habitat.

My Own Private Idealogue is an astonishing show, exhibiting a broad selection of work from across the careers of Wealleans, Madden and Longford and has been presented beautifully within the gallery’s spaces.

Back in the Saddle

2009-12-12T13:09:00.004+11:00

After a bumpy few months things seem to be coming together again. I have some regular work at the moment which couldn't have come at a better time. The nature of the work is exactly what I have been looking for and having a new job has forced me to re evaluate my time in the studio. Its limited so it really has to count.

The Melbourne Art Review is winding down toward the end of the year as the galleries are putting on their stock shows in time for Christmas. However, I have still been studying, thinking and writing about art and you can read an article of mine Objectifying The Body in Art over at Art Catalyst. Its a discussion of one of my favourite topics, the body.

As I've mentioned before, this is my favourite time of year , a transitional period, ideal for reflecting on the year that's past as well as planning for the year ahead.

Passion_Male

2009-11-11T15:49:00.004+11:00

Passion_Male, recently exhibited as part of Mammalian is now listed for auction here

Catching up on sketch-a-days

2009-11-09T10:15:00.005+11:00

From Friday 30 October to last Thursday, 5th of November. Things got a bit busy so the top three of these sketches were done on the same day. I am running a few days behind and will post from Friday the 6th of November to today (the 9th) shortly...

5th November Cat Face, across my mouth and nose.

4th November Peacock Feathers on right leg

3rd November Bark across my chest

2nd November Fruit Bat across my chest

1st November Fruit Bat on my right leg

31st October Horned figure on my back

30th October Leaping cat on my torso

More Sydney Subjects

2009-11-04T12:11:00.007+11:00

Noisy Miners I, II and III.
Noisy Miners are small native grey and yellow birds that congregate around the Domain in Sydney. I really like them, even though they're a bit of a pest and like the flying foxes that fill the CBD at night, these birds are a strange juxtaposition of wildlife and urban space.

It is understood that Smell is a powerful trigger of memory, however, I find particular plants and animals also hold strong associations with time and place. Noisy miners remind me of Sydney at a particular time in my life and whenever I go to the Art Gallery of NSW I make sure I cross the road to say hello to these little guys.

Fragments

2009-10-29T09:59:00.004+11:00

Once again, in ascending order:

"Bolt" water-soluble crayon on my right thigh (monday)
"Face" water-soluble crayon on my left hand (tuesday)
"Grass Snake" water-soluble crayon on my left arm (wednesday)
and "Hare" water-soluble crayon on my stomach (thursday - today)

The sketch-a-day exercises have made me consider more closely different fragments of the body, both in terms of composition and also how well the drawing medium will adhere to the skin.

A quick reminder (cross promotion warning)

2009-10-26T18:21:00.005+11:00

Time is running out to get your hands on one of the affordable Hazel Dooney limited edition screen prints. After November 5th, prices are set to increase.

Wednesday to Sunday

2009-10-26T09:32:00.010+11:00

The batteries in the camera were flat this week so most of these sketch-a-days were taken with the iphone and the quality isn't great. Also, being too busy to make time, Saturday's sketch was done on Sunday.

In ascending order: "face" Biro pen on right big toe, "ants" Biro pen on left hand, "Dino" Biro pen on right knee, "Snail shell" pen, pencil and water-soluble crayons on left thumbnail and "Sparrow" water-soluble crayons on right foot...

Post edited:

The interview I did on Art Catalyst has been mentioned over at Night Moves Art website.

Interlude

2009-10-23T13:30:00.005+11:00

Something that I notice every time I'm in Sydney at dusk, when the weather is warm, the sky is full of flying foxes. I love the strange juxtapositions of these wild bats and the fluorescent lights of high-rise offices.

The urban, everyday environment never ceases to provide views of the uncommon and the unexpected.

Monday and Tuesday

2009-10-20T16:00:00.003+11:00

"Branches" Biro pen. Sketch a day for Monday the 19th

Today: "Jasmine flowers" Water-soluble crayon on my right leg.

Interview and number 6

2009-10-19T12:30:00.005+11:00

Sketch-a-day for Sunday the 18th. "Face" well, as much of a face as I could complete considering I'm not double jointed. It was created using water-soluble crayons.

Also, you can read my interview about the work in Domestic Bliss on Art Catalyst

Number 5 - Feathers

2009-10-17T21:35:00.002+11:00

Feathers, created with biro pen

A Show For Free

2009-10-16T17:59:00.024+11:00

Recently, disheartened by the cost of exhibiting around the city at the various pay-to-play galleries, I started thinking of ways to show my work that were more cost effective and practical.

Inspired, in part, by the self-representing powerhouse that is Hazel Dooney (she has the strength of ten tigers when it comes to producing, exhibiting, managing promoting etc) and sick of paying up to $2000 for a fortnight's worth of pretty average wall space, plus a commission on sales, shouldering the cost of an opening night and being responsible for promotion at the pay-to-plays, I decided to move the entire exhibition online. I did with Domestic Bliss. It cost me a total of $71.73 which includes 100 glossy postcards and stamps for those postcards.

I wish to show work on a regular basis, very regular, perhaps every three months or so to keep up with the volume of new work that I am producing, to give my work a relevant context and to promote my art in new ways.

So, in the democratic share-everything-spirit of web 2.0, here is a step by step guide to setting up an online show, using the many free and easily available resources that now exist thanks to the Internet. These are the steps that I took, if you happen to find a better, more efficient way then well done.

Organising the online exhibition

Step 1: The exhibition "space" - Start a Blog
Find a "space" to exhibit, something you can use for regular shows. I started a blog at kirsopp-exhibition.blogspot.com. I chose blogger because I find it easier to navigate and customise than Wordpress, but that's just me.

I treated it like a real gallery space and kept it as clean as possible. No widgets or links just the images on their own with a little bit of information beneath them and a clear link to a more detailed description of each work. I used a black background as I find the artwork stands out a lot clearer than it does against a white background.

Step2: Hanging the show
"Hang" the show properly by organising the images in a sequence that benefits them most, just as you would when hanging an exhibition in a gallery. Upload all the images in just one post,or as few posts as possible to keep the exhibition clean and free of unnecessary text.

Make sure there's a decent gap between each work so as not to crowd them. Make a description beneath each image that lists the work's title, medium, size, price and if the work is framed or unframed. Avoid putting in too much information under the images as the exhibition needs to remain clean, simple and easy for the audience to view and navigate. When the exhibition is "hung" to your satisfaction set the post options to publish at the time and date that you want the exhibition to "open"

Step3: Create a Separate information page
Create a "Purchase This Work" or "buy now" link beneath each piece. The link should take the viewer to a separate information page for that work to keep the exhibition uncluttered and easy to navigate (I created the information pages on my website which, is powered by wordpress, and kept them unpublished until the show launched).

Title the information page with the title of the corresponding work and have the image of that work on the information page. Here, repeat the information (title, date, medium, un/framed price etc) as well as a more detailed description of the work itself, whether it is signed, as well as payment methods, gst, how the work will be delivered etc... plus an email address should the viewer have any other questions about the work

Step4: Accepting payment
Easiest way to accept payments online is with Paypal buttons. The buyer does not need a paypal account to buy using these buttons. If you don't have a Paypal account go and set one up immediately, well, at least a good two weeks before the show launches as it takes a day or two to get an account verified. Verification is not essential but it is recommended as buyers feel better about paying a verified account holder than an unverified one.

Setting up a Paypal account takes five minutes, all you need is a bank account.
Go to Paypal, click sign up. You will be given the option of a Personal, Premier or Business account. Choose the Premier Account as this model of account enables you to sell as well as buy and is more simple than a business account.

Once your account is active, click on the "Merchant Services"link. Down the bottom of the merchant services page there's a list called "Key Features". Click on the "Buy Now Buttons" link in the "key features" list and Paypal will take you through creating a Buy Now button (with button design options, currency settings, shopping cart options etc) and will provide the code for you to cut and paste onto your website. Very easy.

When you are creating the Buy Now button make sure you title it with the name of the artwork that it will be used for. Create a separate button for each work that is for sale. Put the button on the information page of that artwork. This keeps the main exhibition page clean and puts the focus on the work, making it look less like a shop front and more like a gallery.

Alternatively you can create an eBay listing for the work you want to sell as either an auction a straightforward sale. The eBay page also serves as an information page, two birds with one stone. Selling work through eBay attracts an eBay listing fee as well as a final valuation fee which is a commission eBay charges on sales.

Setting up an eBay account is as easy as setting up a Paypal account. You will need a credit card to sign up with eBay, though.

Link the information (or eBay) pages to the corresponding work. Run through the exhibition and test the links, make sure they take you to the right page. Test the Buy Now buttons and make sure the prices are correct etc. Get someone else on another computer to test it as well.

Promotion

The channels of free promotion I used to promote Domestic Bliss were Twitter and Facebook. I have found these to be amazingly effective tools. I also blogged about it. There are also various gallery sites like Deviantart and Flickr which are free and worth joining.

I began promoting the show about two weeks before it launched. I have always found two weeks to be the ideal time to making an exhibition known, posting about it, sending fliers and invites etc...

At the last minute I decided to print "invites" to the show, which I will send around to continue promoting the exhibition. Normally I would order the invites at least a month before the show as they take about a week and a half from order to delivery.

I designed the invites using GIMP, a free image manipulation program and I used Vista Print to print the invites. Vista Print an online printing company that always has amazing specials on a whole lot of promotional material, where printing is free and you are only charged a small fee for postage and uploading an image.

I chose the standard postcard for my invites (I used this format for the Mammalian exhibition and was really happy with the result). Vista Print offers three post options: fast, standard or slow. I chose the slow option as it generally doesn't make that much difference. The orders usually arrive in a week and a half at most. For 100 colour,glossy postcards printed and delivered I paid $16.73AUD. Vista Print will try and fluff your order by sneaking in stationary options and up selling you on things, that's how they make their money. Be careful and make sure you review your order thoroughly before paying for it.

With a free exhibition all you have to lose is a little time and effort. Domestic Bliss will continue for two months and I'll keep posting here about its progress.

ephemeral

2009-10-16T17:31:00.004+11:00

Sketch of the day, both yesterday's and today's effort, using water-soluble crayons.

"fish"

"Bark"

Its a strange feeling washing something away that was just finished. It is truly ephemeral art.

Number 2 - Snail

2009-10-14T07:00:00.002+11:00

Created with water-soluble crayons.

Sketch of the day with a difference

2009-10-13T10:59:00.003+11:00

Sketch of the day has resumed (the activity of producing a work a day, taking less than an hour etc...)

I have put a twist on it and for the next 30 days I will post a sketch of the day that incorporates my body.

For today's effort I have turned myself into one of my "soldiers" a series that I worked on during university. I loved their wiry and twisted torsos and have been considering pushing that theme a bit further for some time, perhaps finding a way to animate them.

I used edible body paints that I sell in my shop. A strange choice, but it seemed a little more appropriate than acrylic or oil paint, much easier to wash off and they do smell delicious. I don't think they're supposed to be used in that quantity, however.

Opening Tonight

2009-10-09T17:06:00.005+11:00

Domestic Bliss opens tonight at 6pm. There are acrylic, mixed media, charcoal and silverpoint works for sale. Some are purchasable directly using paypal as a payment tool, others are for sale through eBay with the option to either bid or buy outright.
It has been an interesting exercise putting it together and it looks good. I had no idea putting a virtual exhibition together would be as exhausting as a physical show, but it is.
Go and check it ou from 6 pm tonight....

Sneak Peak

2009-10-08T17:19:00.002+11:00

A sneak look at work that will be feature in Domestic Bliss my online show that launches tomorrow.

online show and other art-related opportunities

2009-10-08T11:21:00.009+11:00

My show Domestic Bliss opens tomorrow. An exhibition of silverpoint, painting and drawing that explores the secret life of suburbia where the line between fantasy and reality can become confused. The works will be available for sale via paypal.

Also the opportunity exists to own an original work by Hazel Dooney, she has produced some exquisite stencils as a part of her limited YES/No series. They are very accessible to those wishing to collect her work but for which the prices of the larger enamels are somewhat out of reach... (the stencils are priced between $US500 and $US750)

They come in five colours however I particularly love the effect of the white on white artist proofs. To order, or to enquire further, please contact Priya at dooneystudio@gol.com Payment can be accepted via PayPal, Western Union or national or international bank transfer.

Some cross-promotion goodness, yes. Personally I find that her work continues to amaze me, not only in terms of what she produces but also her work ethic. She has come a long way in a very short space of time and its refreshing to see that her success is a result of focus, hard work and determination rather than simply belonging to a dynasty or having friends in the right places. Something that seems so rare these days as if the right DNA grants you a backstage pass to success without the whole talent/hard work thingy getting in the way (well, it is war after all).

Domestic Series

2009-10-07T10:56:00.003+11:00

Dressing a charcoal on paper sketch that is currently on auction and is available for a few more days

It is tied to Domestic Bliss, my solo show that launches in a couple of days. I have been busy putting the finishing touches to a few of the paintings and I'm looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

Online Exhibition coming soon...

2009-09-29T10:20:00.004+10:00

Domestic Bliss will be my first online exhibition, launching October 9 at 6pm. It will be a selection of my latest work from this year. All works will be available for sale with Paypal.

5 Senses

2009-09-28T17:43:00.003+10:00

Now available for auction here is the anonymous male portrait The Five Senses

Dressed and Ready on eBay

2009-09-24T11:08:00.003+10:00

This unframed charcoal sketch is now up for auction. It is part of the support work for my current series of paintings and silverpoint which will be exhibited here in October. More details soon...

Wide Open Road

2009-09-23T17:51:00.004+10:00

Some images from the trip up to Sydney we took last weekend. We both needed a break and thought going by road would make a nice change. All the rain in NSW has certainly made a difference, I don't think I've ever seen it so green before in my whole life.

Skin on eBay

2009-09-23T17:13:00.004+10:00

A fully framed and mounted print "Shedding Skin" is currently on auction. This print was created in 2007, shortly after completing my Masters thesis. It is inspired by some of Barbara Creed's writing about horror films and the primal uncanny. I was particularly taken with the significance of skin within the horror genre and Creed's alignment of the versipellis (or skin-shedding, shape-changing) monsters with all things female in contemporary culture.

Ellipse practice

2009-09-07T10:44:00.001+10:00

Number 13 - a good opportunity to practice those pesky elements of drawing like ellipses and perspective

Sunday afternoons and coronary stents.

2009-09-06T14:30:00.003+10:00

Another lazy Sketch-a-day effort, for yesterday (number 12). The silverpoint I was working on anyway, not quite finished. Its a detail of a coronary stent. These are such beautiful, delicate and finely crafted objects, they would look good being worn on the outside. If I were a jeweller... hmmm, some great ideas there.

Items currently available on eBay: a framed and mounted "Shedding Skin" print from 2007 and a very recent charcoal drawing "Kissing Wild Ones".

11

2009-09-04T19:41:00.002+10:00

Number 11 in Sketch-a-day. Figure poised in thought. Its going to be a long evening ahead as I have a pile of work to get through by next week.

Number 10

2009-09-04T10:48:00.003+10:00

Here's yesterday's sketch-a-day. When I'm stuck for ideas, a dinosaur always seem's to do the trick.

Number 9 in the sketch-a-day series (kissing wild ones) is currently listed on ebay.

Two Birds

2009-09-02T15:55:00.002+10:00

Today's Sketch-a-day coincided with my studio work, so two birds with one stone here.

Its been a day of frustrations with the various preparations for this month's studio output. When all else fails there's nothing like a quick burst of furious drawing to get the day back on track...

sketch-a-day 8

2009-09-02T09:43:00.001+10:00

The sketch from yesterday, done late last night while in bed. Partner's hands, typing quickly on a laptop

sketch-a-day 7

2009-08-31T21:12:00.004+10:00

A very well dressed old lady on the train, she got on at Lalor station. An empty carriage so it was hard to draw her without being noticed.

Sketch-a-day challenge

2009-08-30T22:30:00.005+10:00

A couple of friends and I have committed to producing a sketch a day (works must be "traditional"media, no computer generated images, and take less than an hour to create)and sharing them on Facebook. I thought I would post them here as well.
Here are the 6 so far (in ascending order) and there will be a new one updated each day.

Morbid Thoughts and Self Portraits

2009-08-25T09:03:00.010+10:00

I was looking through the book 500 Self Portraits (published by Phaidon), the other night. It was a gift from some people who I worked for during university and its one of my favourite books in my shelf. I use it constantly in the studio as a direct reference as well as a form of influential inspiration as if having it by me when I work will, through some strange form of osmosis, make me make better art. Whenever I look at the pictures in the book for some reason I find myself continually comparing the date of the self portrait with the year of the artist's death as though I'm searching for a hint of awareness in the artist's face of how many years (or months) lie between that moment in time and their death. I have no idea why I do this.

2009-08-19T12:13:00.005+10:00

Its actually warm today and apart from the persistent wind its a pleasant day to be working outside.

Works in progress:
Mammalian A series of etchings and silverpoint drawings investigating certain mammalian characteristics, in particular the four-chambered heart and three bones of the middle ear. The works draw on visual influences of medical imaging and looks at technology's impact on our perceptions of our own biology
.

Domestic Bliss A series investigating the less easily definable aspects of our mammalian biology such as gender, sexuality and relationships and how they can manifest within contemporary western culture.

Thank you!

2009-08-17T11:21:00.002+10:00

Thank you to all those people who attended the opening of Mammalian on Saturday night. It was a very busy opening, all three of us were run off our feet!
It feels good to return to the relative sanity of the studio and to my work routine.
The exhibition is on at Hogan Gallery, 310 Smith Street Collingwood and runs until August 31.

The exhibition launched a new series of paintings and prints, continuing my investigations into human nature but taking a new angle on things. Check out the show for a preview of the kind of work that will be coming out of the studio between now and the end of the year.
As things return to normal regular blogging shall resume and I will post pictures soon.