AMBER KOROLUK-STEPHENSON AMBER KOROLUK-STEPHENSON BEYOND THE GATE BEYOND THE GATE
AMBER KOROLUK-STEPHENSON BEYOND THE GATE 31 OCTOBER TO 21 NOVERBER 2014
Bett Gallery
The search for Nirvana, like the search for Utopia or the end of history or the classless society, is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the sleep of reason. 1 - Christopher Hitchens. Beyond the Gate dwells on the impossibility of utopia. At first glance, the scenes in Amber KorolukStephenson’s paintings are bright and playful. They depict a kind of urban paradise with soft grassy hills, colourful and exotic flora and fauna, generous dwellings, and leisure activities aplenty. Mannequin-like figures dot the paintings, either hard at work, or enjoying the sunny weather next to pools or on the golf course. However, things aren’t quite right in paradise. Within the flattened picture plane, angles begin to slip. We see impossible walls, paths that lead to nowhere, and awkwardly placed ladders. Two boys peer over a white picket fence where confident black swans have occupied a domestic pool. The treehouse above their heads, although colourful, is clumsy and impractical, and the title – Flying into Shallow Waters – suggests more is at risk than the boys’ toy aeroplane. In Edward Scissorhands, Tim Burton’s suburban landscape is the backdrop to an extraordinary tale at odds with the absurd uniformity of the pastel houses, lawns and topiaried hedges. Like KorolukStephenson’s paintings, his sets exaggerate suburban life, emphasising uniformity over creativity. This conformity is emphasised in Koroluk-Stephenson’s work through the repetition of plants, the Sims-like characters, and unremarkable dwellings. Like film sets, the paintings are dotted with props: slides, ladders, umbrellas, deck chairs, towels and inflatable swimming rings. They’re items of leisure and play, and in many instances, their presence and location are deliberately nonsensical, and their numbers excessive. In the presence of children, they represent an obsession with short term attention and instant gratification at the expense of lifelong learning and the development of creative play. The artist refers to her scenes as “unreal spaces” that reveal the “absurdity of utopia,” but equally, the absurdity of suburbia. She sets up contradictions: on one hand, she believes the lush foliage alludes to the Garden of Eden, and yet the gardens, with their patterned plants and carefully constructed landscaping, are a little too tidy. Large stumps of trees are repurposed to support balconies, platforms and treehouses. With the trees removed from the environment, they’re replaced with ‘instant’ plants evidently out of place.
1
Christopher Hitchens, Love, Poverty and War: Journeys and Essays (New York: Nation Books, 2004) p. 68
The stairs, ladders and slides symbolise instability, cautioning against false aspirations and utopian dreams. Before the Flood depicts a young family watching kayakers paddle upstream. Biblical reference aside, the presence of the dam appears to threaten the safety of the elegant, yet precarious-looking house. On closer examination, it looks like the only access to the relatively large house is via an unsecured red ladder, suggesting that practicality was not the architect’s forte. But it looks nice. With its strong lines and geometric forms, the house has a Japanese aesthetic, which is complemented by the nearby cherry blossoms, cone-shaped trees and placid-looking pelicans. It’s a façade, and a potentially dangerous one. The scenes in Koroluk-Stephenson’s paintings are composites. They’re non-places populated by generic buildings, swimming pools, and rolling grassy hills, most of which are modelled on images found online. The large house in Evergreen is largely drawn from a contemporary prefabricated housing catalogue. Dwarfed by its neighbour, the other house is an original 1960s design with a similarly sloped roof and floor-length windows. Both are puzzlingly empty, even though (with the exception of the deliciouslooking lawn) the surrounding plants look artificially well established and immaculately pruned. The exotic plants are unrealistically and uncomfortably perfect, as if dragged from a digital catalogue. As constructions, Koroluk-Stephenson’s paintings lack a specific locality. However, there is a distinct Australian aesthetic, and in some of the images we can see hints of Hobart: a notorious Sandy Bay unit block, a low bridge, yachts leaning into the ocean breeze, and a tiny Mount Wellington. Of all the paintings in the exhibition, End of the Line is the most suggestive of Hobart. It is a collage of local imagery from realestate.com, resulting in unlikely angles, a redundant garage, and an awkward and painful-looking slide that is not only impractical due to the presence of a hedge, but also surplus to the needs of the bored-looking children. The mythical ‘Great Australian Dream’ of home ownership has encouraged urban sprawl on our city fringes, and while End of the Line, Flying into Shallow Waters and On the Rise, hint at inner city living, other paintings such as Making Way and From the Ground Up suggest new, greenfield developments dominated by large kit homes. Home ownership has a special place in Australian society. It’s an obsession. Type ‘Australian real estate’ into Google and it identifies 124 million results. The first page lists sponsored investment sites, homeloan deals, and newspaper articles reporting record auction prices and the consequential unaffordability of ‘the dream’. It’s political, it’s social, and it’s dirty. In the 1940s and 50s, Prime Minister Robert Menzies openly established home ownership initiatives to counter communism. He reasoned that people who owned a house, a garden and a white picket fence, were unlikely to turn revolutionary. Despite the fact that home ownership is now financially out of reach for many young Australians, the ‘dream’ remains central to Australian culture and identity. Like KorolukStephenson’s paintings, it’s a constructed ideal. Her houses, landscaped pools, golf courses and colourful plants would not be out of place in a housing development brochure or model. Although many of the figures in Koroluk-Stephenson’s paintings seem emotionally neutral, the relationship between the people in Upper Limits is intriguing. In front of a modest house balanced on stilts, a young woman crouches over a partly-constructed swimming pool, while two men appear to be holding a conversation on the grassy slope. One is dressed in a suit, and could be a real estate agent, and perhaps the title refers to a ‘maxed out’ mortgage and the ‘limits’ of the dream. Of course, it could
equally relate to the precariousness of the raised house on the edge of a rocky retaining wall, or the wooden staircase perched on worryingly high supports. A tree stump, absurdly incorporated into a bizarre wooden platform, represents the destruction of the natural environment, and a desire to control nature through the replanting of more desirable and flamboyant foliage. The golf courses located in most of the paintings further symbolise this drive to impose order on the natural environment through the artificial construction of smooth surfaces, varied lengths of grass, water hazards, and ‘natural’ grassy knolls. Despite the exhibition title, few of Koroluk-Stephenson’s paintings depict physical gates or fences. Notions of ownership, division, and even exclusion, are suggested via more subtle means. For instance, Divided Living depicts a block of units on the left, and a large modern house with floor to ceiling windows on the right. The two are not divided by a fence, as would usually be expected. The division is instead implied by the size and the distinction between public and private space. Although the house is closer to the front of the picture plane, it still seems disproportionately large compared to the sad-looking flats. In the early twentieth century, Modernist architects associated glass and transparency with technological and ideological virtue, destroying the distinction between public and private life. Walter Benjamin remarked: “to live in a glass house is a revolutionary virtue par excellence. It is also an intoxication, a moral exhibitionism that we badly need. Discretion concerning one’s own existence, once an aristocratic virtue, has become more and more an affair of petit-bourgeois parvenus.” 2 However, the practicality of the material means that these kinds of houses tend to be quite costly, and not as egalitarian as once imagined. Unlike the shrouded units, the occupants of the house aren’t concerned with curtains, and we can see their vast living and bedroom area, along with their designer furniture and artwork, suggesting that the links between class and privacy have greatly changed over the last century. While Divided Living comments on class through ownership, many of the other paintings suggest social division through labour and leisure. Themes of work and play are repeated throughout the paintings, depicted by two distinct groups of people: the workers and the holidaymakers or ‘leisure makers’. The workers, heads down, are absorbed by their labour, subject to the gaze of the leisure class. In Making Way, the workers are watched by a group of children and teenagers wearing t-shirts and swimming costumes. A teenager observes from a deckchair, while others stand on an oddly situated viewing platform, phone in hand and uncomfortably out of place. Where there are no ‘leisure makers’ (or ‘leisure seekers’) on scene, their presence is nonetheless suggested: in Higher Ground a towel lies casually on the freshly laid turf, and in From the Ground Up, an inflatable ring sits atop a turquoise pool. Throughout the paintings, surplus deckchairs and brightly coloured umbrellas sit empty, waiting, and the pools, treehouses, golf courses, slides and tents - things usually associated with holidays – sit in a landscape that’s still being created. Again, it’s a contradiction designed to deconstruct notions of luxury and ownership.
2
Walter Benjamin, ‘Surrealism’ in Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, Peter Demetz ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), p. 180.
Koroluk-Stephenson’s paintings address an overwhelming number of themes, from the destruction of the natural environment to the absurdity of suburbia and notions of greed and desire. The works highlight our harmful attempt to control nature through the irrational recreation of exotic landscapes in our gardens and parks, and that instant gratification can be a substitute for happiness. As Richard Flanagan writes in The Narrow Road to the Deep North:
And his life was now, he felt, one monumental unreality, in which everything that did not matter – professional ambitions, the private pursuit of status, the colour of wallpaper, the size of an office or the matter of a dedicated car parking space – was vested with the greatest of significance, and everything that did matter - pleasure, joy, friendship, love, - was deemed somehow peripheral. 3
It may be sunny in paradise, but those exotic plants have a sting.
Dr Lucy Hawthorne is a Hobart-based writer and artist.
3
Walter Benjamin, ‘Surrealism’ in Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings, Peter Demetz ed. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978), p. 180. 3 Richard Flanagan, The Narrow Road to the Deep North (North Sydney: Vintage Australia, 2013), p. 400.
From the ground up 2014 oil on canvas 122 x 152cm $5,100
Before the flood 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 153cm $4,900
End of the line 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 153cm $4,900
Evergreen 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 153cm $4,900
Divided Living 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 153cm $4,900
Beyond the pale 2014 oil on camvas 112 x 137 $4,700
On the rise 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 137cm $4,700
Making way 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 137cm $4,700
Upper Limits 2014 oil on canvas 122 x 137cm $4,700
Higher ground 2014 oil on canvas 112 x 122cm $4,500
Flying into shallow waters 2014 oil on canvas 76 x 91cm $3,500
Image: Before the flood 2014 (detail)
AMBER KOROLUK-STEPHENSON 1988
Born Tasmania, lives and works in Hobart
Education 2011
University of Tasmania, Graduate Certificate (Painting)
2010
University of Tasmania, Bachelor of Fine Art with Honors (Painting)
2007-2009
University of Tasmania, Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting / Photography Double Major)
Solo Exhibitions 2014
Beyond the Gate, Bett Gallery, Hobart Half Full / Half Empty, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston Half Full / Half Empty II, Archive Space, Sydney
2013
Quixotic Habitation, MOP Projects, Sydney
2012
Spaces Between, Bett Gallery, Hobart
2011
Closer to Home, Bett Gallery, Hobart Not At Home, Top Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC), Hobart
2009
Bittersweet Nonsense, Entrepot Gallery, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart Just Like a Woman, Graduate Exhibition, Tasmanian School of Art Ripe, Little Space Gallery, Hobart Polytechnic
Selected Group Exhibitions 2014
Arts Factory Open House, Arts Factory, Hobart
2013
Forged Environments, 146 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Poets and Painters, Bett Gallery, Hobart Constance Makes the Art Grow Stronger, Constance ARI, Hobart Affordable Art Fair, Gaffer, Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre Paddington Art Prize, Mary Place Gallery, Sydney A Century of Aesthetics, Hobart College Centenary Exhibition, Hobart Glover Prize, Falls Park Pavilion, Evandale Members Group Show, Contemporary Art Tasmania, Hobart MONAISTA, Stable Gallery, Hobart A4, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston
2012
Members Group Show, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania, Hobart Sawtooth ARI Gala Fundraiser Auction, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston MONAISTA, Stable Gallery, Hobart
2011
Preview Exhibition and Honours Award Exhibition, Bett Gallery, Hobart Open Doors, Painting Society Exhibition, Entrepot Gallery, Hobart Painting Society Exhibition, Top Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre SAC), Hobart
Painting Society Petite Prize, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart MONAISTA, Stable Gallery, Hobart 2010
Magna & Magister, Plimsol Gallery, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart Members Group Show, Contemporary Art Space Tasmania (CAST), Hobart Painting Society Petite Prize, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart Mixed Tape, Painting and Sculpture Society Exhibition, Long Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC), Hobart Birchalls Tertiary Art Prize, NEW Gallery, University of Tasmania, Launceston
2009
Future Legends, University of Tasmania Graduate Exhibition, Hobart Painting Society Petite Prize, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart Primed, Fine Arts Gallery (FAG), University of Tasmania, Hobart Painting Society Exhibition, Top Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC), Hobart La Femme Thrice, Nourish CafĂŠ, Hobart Painting Society Petite Prize, Tasmanian School of Art, Hobart
2006-2007
ARTRAGE Touring Exhibition, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston
2006
Tasmanian Potters Society Annual Exhibition, Sidespace Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC), Hobart
2004
Tasmanian Potters Society Annual Exhibition, Sidespace Gallery, Salamanca Arts Centre (SAC), Hobart
Awards and Grants 2012
ArtStart Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2012
Artist in Residence, 146 Art Studio, Arts Tasmania, Department of Economic Development, Tourism and the Arts
2012
Shotgun Professional Development Mentorship Program with MOP Projects Sydney, Contemporary Art Spaces Tasmania (CAST), Hobart
2012
Artist in Residence, University of Tasmania, Hobart
2011
Zonta Award: Young and Emerging Artist Prize, Tasmanian Regional Arts
2011
Artist in Residence, School House Studios, Melbourne
2007-2010
Commonwealth Education Costs Scholarship
2007
Seize the Day Award 2007, The Cancer Council, Tasmania
2006
Tasmanian Potters Society Annual Exhibition, Undergraduate Student Award, People's Choice Award
Collections Hobart Polytechnic Private Collections: Australia, United States of America
Bibliography Dr. Lucy Hawthorne, Catalog Essay for Beyond the Gate, Bett Gallery 2014 Jess Bradford, #25 HALF FULL / HALF EMPTY, Amber Koroluk-Stephenson, 20.4-3.5.2014, Writers’ Program, Archive Space Dr. Lucy Hawthorne, All that Glisters is not Gold, Catalogue Essay for Solo Exhibition Quixotic Habitation, MOP Projects 2013 Speer, R, Concrete Playground (online journal),’ Amber Koroluk-Stephenson: Quixotic Habitation - Urban Utopias with an Edge’, Writeup for Solo Exhibition, MOP Projects, 2013 ‘Hong Kong Picks: Affordable Art Fair’, March 8 2013,Hong Kong Magazine, p. 6, 28 Hawthorne,L, Taswrap, October-December 2012, Australian Art Collector, Issue 61,p. 241 Selby, C,Saturday Magazine, ‘Eye on suburbia, December 29 2012 p. 22 Ashley Crawford, Australian Art Collector, Issue 59, January-March 2012, 50 Things Collectors Need to Know 2012, Debutantes: Amber Koroluk-Stephenson, p.151 Meryl Naido, The Mercury, So Suburban, artist interview, May 18 2012 p. 45 Cate Harding, Untapped Tassie, Artist Interview, Edge Radio, August 11 2011 Clyde Selby, The Mercury, Dystopian Reminiscence, February 5 2011 p. 22 Smart Map Tasmania, Arts Tasmania, Department of Economic Development, Tourism & the Arts, paintings used to promote Smart Map in: Australian Art Collector 2011-2012, Art Almanic 2011, Warp Magazine 2011, Travelways 2011, LOOK Magazine 2011. Magna & Magister, Tasmanian School of Art 2010 Honours Catalogue, pp. 18, 19 Anica Boulanger-Mashberg, Islet (online journal), Island Magazine, Spring 2010, Featured Visual Artist Future Legends, Tasmanian School of Art 2009 Graduate Exhibition, pp. 58, 77 The Australian Journal of Australian Ceramics: Pottery in Australia 43#3 2004. pp. 54
Amber Koroluk-Stepenson, Studio detail 2014