Beatrice Magalotti - Portfolio - 2022

BEATRICE MAGALOTTI SCULPTURES

Artist Statement

Beatrice is a contemporary Australian sculptor whose work engages with a range of themes including mythology (particularly Norse and Greek) and migration.

Her work is informed by her experience as a woman. Invisible migrants, stories of travel and life journeys are poetically evoked rather than described. By refusing to engage with popular narratives of migration (notably spectacular media images of suffering individuals and groups) the artist seeks to create a space for reflective and introspective dialogues.

Beatrice uses embroidery and sewing in her work. Traces of stitching and details of textures of fabrics - traditional female responsibilities - are visible on her bronzes and ceramics. The delicate gestures of hand-crafting soft and ephemeral materials (fibre and fabric) are by a series of processes (moulding, casting, and patination) changed into hard and permanent materials (bronze and ceramics).

This work is far broader that any specific migrant situation – it is about the human condition of most of the Australian population, and a global condition that crosses the centuries, a response to food scarcity, war and economic opportunities.

Recent works have become more collaborative.

In 42 Days, 42 Boats, 42 Installations

Beatrice led a collaborative response to the pandemic. It playfully circumvents our lack of global mobility by offering unexpected and serendipitous vistas and creative narratives. The photographic project celebrates the spectacular and the quotidian as the boats navigate familiar, local and exotic, distant horizons.

Other recent collaborative projects include Beatrice’s Covid-19 Postcards and A+B Projects.

Beatrice Magalotti

Prizes & Awards

2022 Sculpture Prize, Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA)

2021 Elsewhere & Other Places (artaviso event) Main Prize Winner

2021 Sculpture Prize, Arts Rutherglen

2020 Sculpture Prize, Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA)

2020 Sculpture Prize, Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS)

2017 Yering Station, Sculpture Prize

2017 Annie Davison Oliver Award, MSWPS

Art Residency

2019 Odense, Denmark (Sept-October)

2018 Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland

2017 Stanley, Tasmania, Australia

Contemporary Sculptors Association (CSA)

Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors (MSWPS)

Exhibitions

2022 SCULPTURE NOW, CSA Member Show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford PORTRAY - Sculpture, The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove 42days 42boats 42 installations, QVWC, Melbourne, 27 sept-14 Oct, Solo Exhibition Changing Perspectives 2022, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne 42days 42boats 42 installations, The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove, 5-28 August 2022, Solo exhibition 42days 42boats 42 installations, Ladder Art Space, Kew, 15 June – 2 July, Solo exhibition The Seeresses, Satellite Projects Melbourne, Collingwood, 2 June- 30 June, Solo Exhibition Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards 2021 Interior, YAVA Gallery & Arts Hub, Healesville, Without Walls, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre (QVWC), Melbourne Rutherglen Tasters of Art Prize, Memorial Hall, Rutherglen 42days 42boats 42 installations, Various Space Gallery, Foster, Solo exhibition

2021 Changing Perspectives 2021, MSWPS – Virtual Exhibition (Online 1-31 October) Sculpture on the farm, Dungog (Online 1-10 October) Elsewhere & Other Places… (Artaviso event) https://www.artaviso.com/elsewhere-other-places/ Life in lockdown | STAGES photography Monash Gallery of Art https://www.stages.mga.org.au/life-inlockdown

2021 Wollombi Valley Sculpture Festival, Sculpture in the Vineyards (Online 1-30 September) Solo Exhibition, Red Gallery, North Fitzroy STUDIO 11 Owen Dixon Chambers, Melbourne Make a Fuss, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, Melbourne Gippsland Sculpture Exhibition, Arc Gallery, Yinnar Rutherglen Tasters of Art Prize, Memorial Hall, Rutherglen

2020 Changing Perspectives 2020, MSWPS – Virtual Exhibition Make a Fuss, Virtual Exhibition, Queen Victoria Women’s Centre COVID-19 Global Quilt, www.instagram.com/covid19quilt/ Bonanza, CSA Member Show, Virtual Exhibition Albert Park College, Art Show, Virtual Exhibition

2019 Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards 2019 Bonanza, CSA Member Show, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbotsford Changing Perspectives 2019, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, Gordon Toorak Village Sculpture Exhibition

2018 Yering Station Sculpture Exhibition and Awards 2018 (Finalist)

2018 MASTERWORKS Art Exhibition in the Vines, Swipers Gully Vineyard & Restaurant, Kangaroo Ground Changing Perspectives 2018, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne New Works, Red Gallery, North Fitzroy Art Prize & exhibition, Collins Street Baptist Church, Melbourne.

2017 Yering Station Sculpture, Exhibition and Awards 2017 Changing Perspectives 2017, MSWPS – Victorian Artist Society, Melbourne Glimpses, Meeniyan Art gallery, Meeniyan Recent Works, Antipodes, Bookshop & Gallery, Sorrento Harbour Sculpture, Woolwich

2016 From the familiar to the unfamiliar - Cambridge Studio Gallery, Collingwood Nine Lives, Alphington Artist- Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora Changing Perspectives 2016 – Malvern Artists’ Society, Malvern 2015 synergy, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Collingwood Art Prize & Exhibition, Collins Street Baptist Church, Melbourne

2014 Herring Island Summer Arts Festival

The Darebin Art Show, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora Art Prize & exhibition, Collins Street Baptist Church, Melbourne.

2013 Northern Lights, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora a number of things, Cambridge Studio Gallery, Collingwood Quattro, four artists four art forms, Arts Inc. Gallery, Apollo bay

2012 Elements, Steps Gallery, Carlton Pink lady art exhibition 2012, Brighton Town Hall, Brighton Annual Exhibition ASV, Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Abbottsford

2011 She who Loves, Walker Street Gallery, Dandenong Castlemaine State Festival, ASV Sculpture Prize 2011, Castlemaine The Darebin Art Show, Bundoora Homestead Art Centre, Bundoora Annual Exhibition ASV, light factory gallery, Eltham

2010 Selections, Steps Gallery, Carlton Glenlyon annual sculpture show - Glenlyon shire hall, Glenlyon This Positive Life - the art of experience, Banyule Arts Space, Ivanhoe Pink lady art exhibition 2010, Brighton town hall, Brighton

During May & June 2018 I was one of the artists at the Fish Factory, Creative Centre, a multi-disciplinary Art Residency in Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland. This sculpture Valkyrie is part of an evolving theme in my work: using abstract, organic shapes to create the figurative and the anthropomorphic.

Valkyrie, Seated Valkyrie, Taking Flight and Arabesque are some of the works from my two month residency at the Fish Factory, Iceland. These works form part of my Valkyrie Series. The Valkyries are very much part of Norse Mythology, they were the female maidens who chose who died and lived on the battlefield and which of the dead were carried to Valhalla.

The Völvas, also one of the works from my residency in Iceland.

The Völvas were female shamans in the Viking age and very much part of Norse mythology. The word Völvas means wand carrier or carrier of a magic staff. As part of this sculpture I have incorporated the staff and bags in which herbs were carried.

The Völvas Bronze detail

In 2019 I participated in an art residency at Gæsteatelier Hollufgård, Denmark. This afforded an ideal environment both for working and dialogue with fellow residents. It also provided me with a fresh outlook on my work and I continue to extend this research.

“Arrival” is one of the pieces that developed out of my residency in Denmark. and is part of my Migration Series. As the daughter of migrants, I am keen to explore notions of identity and travel associated with migration.

Inspired by my research into boats in Denmark, and the hull of Barca Nostra at the 2019 Venice Biennale, my work evokes the bitter-sweet narratives of migration.

The hand-sewn sacks and crudely stitched seams on the boat are metaphors for fragility, the act of mending clothes and patching together our lives. “Arrival” depicts the ending of a difficult and uncertain journey, where the migrants are absent, possibly having moved on.

This work is both a celebration of migration as a new beginning and a personal protest against the way most developed countries approach migration.

This project is my response to the COVID19 Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne, originally announced for 42 days from 2 August to 13 September 2020.

Melbournians were limited to travel within a 5km radius, and only allowed to leave home for four reasons, 1 hour of exercise per day. A curfew between 8pm to 5 am – 8 pm was also imposed. This self-directed project focused my time and energy and helped me to remain productive during the lockdown.

I made a boat for each day of the Stage 4 lockdown. Once the boats were fired and glazed, I photographed the boats in different environments as installations. Once the Stage 4 lockdown was lifted I was also able to photograph the boats outside the 5km radius from my home.

Each boat’s surface shows stitched seams. The crudely stitched seams on the boat are metaphors for fragility, the act of mending and patching together our lives.

Australians are still unable to travel overseas for other than exceptional purposes, but there is still a limited parcel post. I cannot leave Australia but my boats can. I contacted a number of artists and asked if they would be interested in photographing one of my ceramic boats and posting the photos on Instagram to give the boats a bit of a log of their journey. The response was overwhelming.

On 1 February 2021, 6 boats were sent on their way, two to the United States, three to Europe and one to Western Australia. June 2021 a further two boats were sent overseas one United Kingdom and one to the United States. Boats that were made in an extreme lockdown when we could not move more than 5km are now travelling the world.

Four exhibitions were confirmed to showcase this project in 2022.

Various Space Gallery, Foster Ladder Art Space, Kew The Hive Gallery, Ocean Grove

Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, Melbourne

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