Out of Line 2017

Out of Line curated group exhibition 7 to 25 November 2017

Out of Line curated group exhibition 7 to 25 November 2017

Most works of art start with a simple line, whether that be for a preparatory sketch or giving form to an idea. The field of drawing is therefore one brimming with possibilities, innovation, and cross-pollination. “Out of Line� will pay homage to the fundamental nature of drawing, whilst also aiming to see these lines jump off the page, defy expectations and merge with other fields. This group exhibition will provide a survey of how drawing-based practices comprise a variety of aesthetics, mediums and technologies.

MARGARET ACKLAND (Flinders Lane Gallery) Artist Statement These works are about people watching. Sometimes around the streets of Surry Hills, Redfern and Waterloo and sometimes in the great art museums of the world. All the original images have been captured on an iPhone.

I am fascinated by the way we can all capture so much of our quotidian existence on this tiny device that is so commonplace as be almost invisible.

Since early in 2014, I have been collecting these images and also reflecting each day on the way world events are communicated to us through the images in our daily newspapers.

This project is called the Watercolour News and it remains an ongoing artwork

Margaret Ackland Albion St, Surry Hill 2017 watercolour drawing on paper 21 x 21cm

RODNEY JAMES ALEXANDER (Gallery Salamanca) Artist statement The artwork is black thread hand woven on a circular frame. Depending on the light, the wall on which it hangs, and the distance from the viewer the work will change its appearance dramatically as the threads and spaces interact with the light, environment and the viewers perception.

As visual artists we manipulate elements of the physical world to express an idea or emotion. Often what we create is an attempt to fool the eye into seeing something that is not really there. A figurative painting is a manipulation of pigments to create an illusion. My interest lies in the spaces between reality, illusion and perception. The line between reality and illusion is a continuum - and that continuum is our perception. Our perception of an empty space between thread can be of a wall in shadows or the highlight of a human eye.

Our perception of the world around us is primitive. We live in a minutely narrow spectrum; on one side reality stretches deep into the Quantum where everything is made of empty atoms. On the other, out into the astronomical where distances are beyond comprehension and time and space meld together.

Reality, illusion and perception.

Rodney James Alexander Brianna 2017 black leatherwork thread and panel 90 x 90 x 2cm

KIM ANDERSON Artist Statement Close observational drawing has always been at the core of my work. Through my drawing I am able to peel back the protective layers I display to the outside world and undertake an extremely personal journey of intense emotional scrutiny, exploring my deepest responses to the world around me. In attempting to capture not only the physical attributes of a subject, but also the more intangible emotional aspects, I repeatedly explore themes such as the physical manifestations of a mind in turmoil, the relationship between the psyche and the landscape, minute structures of the body and environment, the traces we leave upon the world and the imprint it leaves upon us. With a consistent tendency towards intricate detail, I often incorporate translucent materials and unconventional modes of display in order to explore the transformative effects of light and scale upon traditional drawing techniques.

The meticulous and physically laborious nature of my drawing means that process plays a very significant role in the creation of my work. Regardless of scale or subject matter, whether permanent or ephemeral, private or public, my creative process becomes a feat of physical and mental endurance – line after tiny line on a wall or a page, an exhausting, exhilarating and painstakingly meticulous act that takes on various aspects of a journey, a meditation, and in some ways a search for self-knowledge. Recently I have tried to challenge my practice by introducing more spontaneity and intuition into my process, and achieving greater complexity in my work, both in concept and technique. I have made a huge shift in the way that I view my practice, and in the way I think about the nature of drawing itself as a means of expression, not just representation. I’m now learning to trust myself to make the right mark, to find the right language, to search for the right line, and to allow for the time that it will take to find it.

Kim Anderson Gesichtslosgeist 2017 ink, charcoal and pastel on paper 120 x 80cm

LORRAINE BIGGS Artist Statement My main drawing focus is generally about the natural world. Most recently I have been working with forest ecosystems in the Cradle Mountain National Park and also in the Blue Tier highland reserve in North East Tasmania near where I live. I often work with multiple format drawing sequences or sometimes larger single works to create series. In multipanel works I can include a lot of images that relate to each other yet work as individual drawings. In forest or bush series it can be made up of many drawings of abstract details of plant or larger shapes that aim to capture a feel of entanglement, movement or general immersion.

Lorraine Biggs Small Wonders of the Forest #1 2015 pastel chalk on paper 100 x 70cm

MATT CHUN Artist Statement During September and October, I’ve been working as artist-in-residence from Bamboo Curtain Studio in Taipei, with the support of Australia Council for the Arts.

Much of my residency has been spent in Guanyinshan and Yangmingshan, the mountains surrounding Taipei, where the built and natural environments converge. Politically, culturally, geographically and spiritually, Taipei is a city of liminal space, of blurred edges and ambiguous thresholds. Exploring these boundaries by motorbike, I’ve created a travelogue of observational sketches in pencil, watercolour and found materials.

Matt Chun Guanyinshan #4 2017 watercolour and pencil on paper - unframed 28.5 x 19cm

TODD FULLER Artist Statement In Peter Darling’s choreography of the Dream Ballet sequence for the musical Billy Elliot, a young Billy undertakes a Pas de deux with a chair. Set to the dramatic sound track of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, Darling subverts the safety of the ballet barre replacing it with a mesmerising spinning chair balanced on pointe in an impossible manner. The chair loses its stability to become a menacing, uncanny obstacle to the dance. Yet, a young Billy flawlessly moves with strength, determination, control and grace, turning his spinning foe into an unlikely dance partner. Appropriating this choreography, the Artist creates a selfportrait animated in pastel on paper. Through it, Fuller re-lives childhood experiences as a pseudo ‘Billy Elliot’ dancing in rural community. With fading technique, his hand drawn solo reflects on the relationship between gender, dance, and place and the ability for queer community to draw resilience, strength and beauty from the most chaotic of moments.

Todd Fuller Billy’s Swan 2017 chalk and charcoal animation and video - 5:37mins edition of 8 Choreography appropriated Charles Darling, Billy Elliot the Musical.

Composition: Paul Smith

NICCI HAYNES Artist Statement I think of drawing as something that involves not only the hand but the whole body.

I made myself a drawing costume with long arms and legs that allows traces of my movements to be captured on camera, which makes the actions of my body look like drawing. I found a way to combine drawings of the hand with those of the body and created the stop-motion animation ...in my drawing costume....

Nicci Haynes in my drawing costume 2015 video, drawing - 1:06mins edition of 5

RACHAEL HELMORE Artist Statement “As a person looks at things and spaces, the appearance of those things and spaces shift—eyes dart, thoughts oscillate, bodies move…(Helmore) reveals to audiences that these arbitrary points of disappearance also implicate a vantage point from which they are (un)seen. Who is seeing and why do they see this way?””

– Katie Ukleja Rapid observational drawing – normally without looking at the page – forms the basis of Rachael Helmore’s practice. Extending into performance and video work, her recent practice is an exploration of the way we perceive and move through space. For Out of Line, Helmore will responding directly to the streetscape surrounding MAY SPACE, be creating a site-specific drawing on the gallery windows. Helmore documents fleeting moments between people, objects, light and shadow.

A changing landscape is examined, broken down, drawn and pieced back together again in the video work Ganguddy to Kandos (2017). Comprised of 250 drawings, the viewer is taken on a journey from the national park into the centre of town. With the landscape translated into simple line work and a deliberately paced progression, attention is drawn to the subtle ways in which shapes and thoughts shift over time and space. The artist reflects on the distinctions often drawn between time spent at specific sites and time spent “between” places.

Rachael Helmore Window Drawing, 11 November 2017 performance

CHRIS HUMPHRIES Artist Statement Some time ago I started to draw in books as the textures and surfaces are generally timeworn and aged, which appealed to me. In the book drawings I have combined the ideas of Australian landscape with Australian Authors. The origins of the concept for the book drawings can be traced back to the found object theories of Duchamp.

Recycling and creating alternative functions for objects, other than the original and intended function.

The inspiration for Drawing in Bark House Days is derived from one many drawing trips I undertake each year. The durable and deep-rooted eucalypt that features in this drawing, I stumbled across near Trentham in central Victoria. The book title seemed most appropriate for the addition of this drawing, due to the scale and natural configuration of the tree.

Chris Humphries Drawing in Bark House Days 2016 pen and ink on paper 18 x 23 x 1cm

ALUN RHYS JONES Artist Statement The original charcoal drawing BECKHAM comprises a photorealistic depiction of a crumpled plastic bag. However in the drawing the bag is crumpled and distorted, the image printed on its surface twisted and transformed reflecting the aspirational and often unobtainable nature of the body beautiful promoted by the advertising industry, the speed with which these images are discarded and a reminder of the unsustainable nature of our throwaway society.

In a similar vein celebrity endorsements attach a glamorous cache to a brand.

The consumer perceives an association between a brand and a celebrity that they admire and relate to, resulting in purchasing products from that brand. David Beckham is the ultimate male, celebrity brand. A working class footballer and all round good bloke he is a walking advertisement for the aspirations of the male audience.

Alun Rhys Jones BECKHAM 2015 charcoal on stonehenge paper 122 x 100cm

MELINDA LE GUAY Artist Statement Starting with a simple horizontal line, the ink drawings develop organically as minute deviations interrupt the flow...

Melinda Le Guay Flow 1 and 2 2017 ink on paper 19 x 31cm and 20 x 13cm

NOEL MCKENNA (Darren Knight Gallery) Artist Statement All the drawings were done on one night during a life model session at NAS Darlinghurst. I had just started again going to life model sessions and a particular model that we always seemed to have used to strike poses which I found difficult to respond to . This evening I bought with me some photographs which I was going to use as starting point for drawings in case the model turned up that I found a bit difficult .The model turned up so I spent most of the night using my photos to draw from . It is kind of a disrespectful thing to do but rather then waste my night seemed the best thing to do . I do think being in a room with other people affected the way I drew that night , so for me a good compromise.

Noel McKenna Cat in Tree (2) 2017 ink on paper 21 x 30cm

PETA MINNICI Artist Statement My work explores the interrelationship of personal memory and the nature of time.

The drawn mark evokes the fragility of remembering. The remembered image contains a temporality and an emotional feeling attached to it. The drawn line also relates to the concept of memory consisting of a mass of marks that are designated in what we have seen, heard and felt. The image is broken down into fragmentary marks. Each line in the drawing symbolises a moment in time that has been preserved.

Peta Minnici Doorway 2017 pen ink on BFK Rives paper 122 x 98cm

TRUDY MOORE Artist Statement This work is a three-dimensional rubbing of the pillar in MAY SPACE; a paper and charcoal representation of the original. Exploring a space between drawing and sculpture, the work presents as a delicate paper shell. It is empty, yet suggests solidarity; a ghostly reminder of something that once was. Considered through this work are ideas of change and transformation, absence and presence, artifice and illusion.

Trudy Moore Pillar 2 2017 charcoal on paper 464 x 30.5 x 30.5cm

MYLYN NGUYEN Artist Statement When I was old enough to remember, I was told I was fat (although better than fat, phĂŹ lu: enlarged flood or big lump) and sometimes in the same breath, I was made aware of my hairy arms and legs and face. I am reminded that I have killed birds, that I have killed snails, that I would eat maggots in my afterlife. I am boring, but was told not to take it the wrong way and then pushed into a pole and then teased for my accent. I have white feet.

Mylyn Nguyen Pubic Hair Legs 2017 graphite and watercolour on paper 59 x 42cm

CATHERINE O’DONNELL Artist Statement My art practice focuses on the urban landscape, representing the commonly overlooked dwellings of Sydney suburbia in an abstracted form. I see in the uncomplicated geometric constructions simplicity of form and it is this that captures my imagination.

My simple tape drawing in Out of Line is based on the floor plan of my childhood home, which I have re-imagined in terms of order, abstraction, and geometry, to elevate it through aesthetic contemplation, so that it contradicts the ordinariness of its existence and allows for at least the possibility of transcendence.

Catherine O’Donnell Lyndley Street 2017 tape 290.8 x 236cm

INDIGO O’ROURKE Artist Statement Russell Street rain #1 and #2 belong to an ongoing series of biro drawings depicting rain drops falling onto panes of glass looking out from a building window, train or car.

I work within a research based practise often building narratives from social and political issues in todays climate.

Homelessness in the city of Melbourne is something many of us are confronted by while at work in the CBD. I will often stop and chat to people sleeping rough and listen to their unique stories. These stories continue to affect the way I felt about the weather and how difficult life is for those people without a home.

Indigo O’Rourke Russell St. rain #1, 2017 biro on stonehenge paper 22 x 28.5cm

ANASTASIA PARMSON Artist Statement I dream of creating a whole environment in drawing; something people can walk through, exist in and interact with. I want to take drawing past its conventional twodimensional format by combining it with other mediums such as sculpture and readymade, video and projection, performance and poetry, social media and augmented reality. I want it to be not just seen – but experienced.

Stripping everything down to the line - that is the most basic form of every drawing.

A way to simplify life and environment, to blank out any heavy implications and make things more light and approachable. Ultimately, I want my work to be about drawing people together. Perhaps creating a world in drawing can strip away enough preconceived notions to allow for a new space of co- existing.

Anastasia Parmson Untitled (my space at may space) 2017 mixed media installation dimensions variable

ANNA LOUISE RICHARDSON (MARS Gallery) Artist Statement Anna Louise Richardson is interested in rural identity in contemporary Australia, which she shows through figurative depictions drawn from personal narratives.

Her work reveals the perceived and problematic dichotomy between urban and rural Australian identities, specifically within a broader narrative of place and disconnection within rural Australia. Waiting for Dad shows a fox that has been shot following an incident that took place at the Richardson family farm. The artist describes the events as follows: “A fox chased by the dog ran full pelt into the glass doors of the farmhouse one night. The resulting fight between the dog and the fox injured the fox, which was then contained in a 44 gallon drum awaiting Dad’s return. In the end, Dad shot the fox in the barrel.” While the image could be unsettling, it reveals a complex relationship between rural Australians, the environment, and ecological responsibility. The emphasis on the father in this work also points to issues of generational knowledge in a rural context.

Anna Louise Richardson Waiting for Dad 2016 graphite, paper, wood 300 x 140 x 120cm

EDGAR SCHILTER Artist Statement This work is balancing along the partition of order and chaos with one foot in either world. It is an attempt to contain and consolidate the impossible, to completing an unsolved mechanical puzzle. At each level, flirting with the uncontrollable variables can lead one awry. Undue order leads to mundanity and predictability. Undue chaos to bedlam.

Edgar Schilter Jarred Yacht No.24 2017 watercolour, graphite, india ink on watercolour paper 105 x 70cm

PAUL WHITE Artist Statement I am intrigued by obsolescence, the passing of time and the transformation associated with it. I am interested in how memory, place and time shape us, and in freezing and examining particular moments in my personal history to map out a navigation of the world. My use of pencil on paper in a meticulous and highly detailed manner is not only an attempt to gather every degree of detail from the image by conducting a thorough investigation into it, but also through this time consuming process, a way of slowing down the world.

Paul White Mines Silver Lined (Broken Hill back track) 2017 pencil on paper 140 x 100cm

AINSLEY WILCOCK Artist Statement Ainsley Wilcock is intrigued by the human tendency to seek and draw out meaning from mimetic qualities of arbitrary and everyday stimulus. Creating strange, composite forms she explores a perceived relationship between pareidolia and the anthropomorphic grotesque. Presence and absence (materiality of absence) collapse in upon each other through considerations of shadow, puppetry and empty piles of clothing. There are empty clothes and there is empty space, yet inhabited clothes and inhabited space; drawing attention to the possibilities of a metaphysical life and the promise of, or capacity for something more.

Ainsley has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons 1) and a Bachelor of Arts (Sociology and Anthropology) from the University of New South Wales/College of Fine Arts. She is in the midst of undertaking her Masters of Fine Arts by Research.

Ainsley Wilcock Composite #21, 2016 coloured penciln on Stonehenge paper - unframed 76.5 x 112cm

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