strange dolls: Jo Meisner 'éclairage: the fabric of the maligned' exhibition catalogue

jo meisner I am an emerging artist based in Sydney. My practice spans photography, installation and sculptural assemblage and probes contemporary notions of identity. The Crowd and the Individual are two concepts that I return to as subjects in my work, which has variously focused on the cultural and social impact of forced migration and the fabric of the individual psyche. My own personal experiences of institutionalization as a teenager and growing up as the descendant of Eastern European Jewish immigrants are formative influences on my work to date.

My work playfully aligns itself with the history of figurative painting as well as the traditions of street photography and the history of textile manufacture. Processes of swaddling, pinning and wrapping are central to my practice and are material concerns that recall the act of “mothering� in the development of the individual. The ordinary scene of a crowd in transit is a repeated motif in my work, which is characterized by the representation of anonymous figures observed from the rear and side view. From the context of the crowd, individuals are isolated and replaced by mirrors, shadows and tactile reliefs; in this way the figure becomes a surrogate for psychological introspection and selfidentification and my work could be read as a means of oblique self-portraiture.

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strange dolls The silhouetted profile of visual artist Jo Meisner has itself been a recurring motif in her figurative work that has consistently explored concepts of identity and displacement, of the individual and the crowd.

I see her in my mind’s eye, in a bright and cold Paris Spring. Jo stands, backlit against narrow floor-length windows, the iron curlicues of a balcony just visible outside. Inside her artists’ studio it is warm; perched high among the grey mansard chimney-potted roofscape where pigeons murmur and wings flutter. Lit by shafts of lengthening light, her neck bends over the task in her dexterous hands, a small doll-like figure that is no plaything. A worktable behind her is littered with jewel-bright scraps. Exuberantly patterned and coloured textiles, fallen in cut shapes, evoking amber, turquoise, crimson and jade. That bent neck, her distinctive head of tiny curls, bouncing as she talks in her gentle and clipped cadence, about the movement of people, the crisis of asylum, humanity’s civility at stake, histories of exodus repeating themselves, her own people included, her conviction is clear, a calm vehemence spiralling.1 During that Paris residency Meisner made many of these small figurine-effigies. Calling them dolls seems appropriate as the word encapsulates the contradiction of affection and repulsion that dolls can evoke. These collaged amalgams, made of cut-out digital prints, wadded and stitched with waxed so-called ‘African’ textiles are strange and awkward dolls, Meisner’s own variants of the tradition of poupées bizarres.

Incorporating images cut from contemporaneous news stories about the exodus of asylum seekers; the faces and limbs of 9

mothers, fathers, children – all dispossessed, form a strangely spectacular procession, caught in flight and pinned mid-stride to the studio walls. The use of waxed African textiles, sourced in Paris, is replete with bodily as well as post-colonial meaning. As Meisner spoke and as she pinned and stitched her strange dolls, it was clear that her intent was to fuse her personal, political and cultural concerns through hand-making, in a process that was alternately tender and awkward (and therefore, so felt, so resonant).

Significantly, these votive little figures are not intended to be shown, though they were the genesis for Meisner’s new body of work, now presented in a flattened, reductive and refined format.

The works exhibited were made once she was back in Sydney for this solo exhibition, Éclairage: the fabric of the maligned, at 220 Creative Space. They represent a visual and material refinement of those early hybridised dolls, while maintaining the potent allusions made possible by the crafted melange of media.

There is the printed imagery; no longer sourced from news media but now based on Meisner’s own images. I walked some of those streets with her. While there are elements of Baudelarian flânerie in her strolling, that of the dispassionate observer merging unseen with the fleeting flow of the city, her camera held surreptitiously low, capturing people from behind, maintaining her and their anonymity, there was also an underlying and rigorous selection at work.

For Meisner, who comes from a background in the fashion industry, textiles are a readable language as well as a history.

The wearing of cloth or clothing is obviously a visible and outward expression of personal identity, however for 10

marginalised communities the wearing of cloth simultaneously conveys identity and diaspora; of movement away from homeland. Within the Parisian arondissement in which she lived and worked, the distinctly patterned and exuberant colours worn by the African community of Paris was striking, even painterly.

Daubs of brightness set against the pale stone Haussmann boulevards, grey skies, metro tunnels and the chill of frequent rain-washed streets of that season. Yet, where a flaneur traditionally takes on a morally ambiguous stance the work of Jo Meisner defiantly does not. As her followers on Instagram are regularly asked, who are ‘we’? Who gets to decide? These are uncomfortable questions about how we as individuals, and as nations, select and categorise people.

It’s a question inherent in the works, as cut-out figures alternate between photograph, form and void. It’s a vexed challenge, presented in microcosm by the particular choice of textile, a waxed ‘African’ cloth. A heavy cotton fabric, its loaded lineage is a global tale of colonial appropriation and cross-cultural influences. Originally conceived and manufactured in Holland, using wax-dyeing techniques gleaned from Java, then sold as an afterthought into the African market, it is a colonial relic of Dutch East-India and corporate interests with contemporary currency as an artistic medium. Aside from this loaded material legacy, the feeling and affinity for textiles is apparent in the way Meisner uses formal drawn design elements and glowing hues so simply and effectively to suggest movement within the figures. It is as if the very fabric carries within it that swinging step, their weary plodding, his swish of bravado, her tentative gesture, folded within.

The multi-layering of images and textiles are combined in the works with the clean and minimal formats of light, transparency 11

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and contained rectilinearity. The result is a series of alluring jewel-like panels, boxes and small sculptures, containing and restraining the anonymous silhouetted figures, the strange dolls, within. The angular cut-outs retain a hand-scissored quality and the recognisable human silhouettes work with the dazzling colour (and complex cultural history) of the textiles to tell a story of people in movement, absent of didacticism. From the largerscaled Duraclear films, to the more intimately scaled Perspex boxes and laser-cut figures, each piece is effectively an identity kit. Paradoxically, one that describes as much as obscures specific individuals and places in order to paint a picture of mass movement of communities. This body of work, this collective body of strange dolls, is art that is a beautifully fluent crystallisation of this artist’s way of thinking about seeing, and translating the world, in visual terms.

And now it’s over to Jo to speak, as in her words, “It’s all to do with how we treat people.

We put them in boxes.”

Lisa Sharp OCTOBER 2017

Lisa Sharp is an artist and writer who studied with Meisner. She graduated from the National Art School with a BFA Honours in 2015 and also holds Bachelor and Masters degrees in English and in Law from the University of Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney.

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The writer was fortunate to spend 4 days with the artist during her residency at the Sharpe-Ollis Studio Residency in Paris earlier this year.

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Displaced

Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 28.2 x 12,4 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 28 x 12.5 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 29.1 x 13 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 27 x 11.6 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 28.7 x 11.5 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 28.7 x 11 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 31 x 12 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 30.5 x 11.7 cm Edition of 3

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Displaced, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 28 x 12.5 cm Edition of 3

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Eternal movement

Eternal movement, 2017 Digital print on duraclears, metal bar, 200 x 127 cm Edition of 3

Page 29 Eternal movement, 2017 Digital print on duraclears, metal bar, 118.9 x 84.1 cm Edition of 3 Page 30 Eternal movement, 2017 Digital print on duraclears, metal bar, 118.9 x 84.1 cm Edition of 3 Page 31 Eternal movement, 2017 Digital print on duraclears, metal bar, 118.9 x 84.1 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread

Connected by a thread, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Perspex, paper, fabric, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Perspex, paper, fabric, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Perspex, paper, fabric, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Connected by a thread, 2017 Perspex, paper, fabric, 30.5 x 21.6 x 8 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness

Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 19 x 13 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 19 x 13 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 19 x 13 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 19 x 13 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 19 x 13 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 26 x 19 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Light and darkness, 2017 Digital print on laser cut perspex, 26 x 19 x 4 cm Edition of 3

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Diaspora/ home

Diaspora/ home, 2017 Digital print, 42 x 29.7 cm paper size ,18.8 x 16 cm image size Edition of 3

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Diaspora/ home, 2017 Digital print, 29.7 x 42 cm paper size, 12.4 x 16 cm image size Edition of 3

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Diaspora/ home, 2017 Digital print, 29.7 x 42 cm paper size, 12.4 x 16 cm image size Edition of 3

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fabric of light and the beleaguered curatorial essay

Jo Meisner’s work holds a mirror up to the urban world we inhabit and sheds light on the isolated, alienated and dislocated individuals unobserved within.

This exhibition is a culmination of work begun in Paris during the Wendy Sharpe/ Bernard Ollis Residency. From February 2017 Meisner was immersed in the reality of the 18th arrondissement of Paris, atop the hill of Montmartre in a sixth floor apartment and studio. During this two month residency the artist encountered the true multicultural and ethnic diversity of Paris, away from the tourist highlights. The work created during this time, and completed in her Sydney studio, responds to the marginalised, disenfranchised and maligned people she observed on the street.

This body of work concentrates on the Syrian, African and Muslim communities in and around the 18th arrondissement of Paris. Some are French born, some migrants and others new refugees, all with different stories. Meisner was captivated and attracted to the well-dressed people in these communities, their rich fabrics with luxurious textures and the brightly coloured patterns of Ankara cloth. Ankara also known as Ankara prints, African prints, African wax prints, Holland wax and Dutch wax, is a vibrantly patterned cotton fabric1. This colourful fabric was 53

developed in the mid-nineteenth century from the Javanese (Indonesian) wax-resist dying technique of Batik using Central and West African inspired patterns2. Dutch and French developments used banknote-printing machines to apply resin to both sides of the fabric and multiple wooden stamps to fill block areas of colour that resulted in an intensely coloured fabric on either side3. Today the cloth is manufactured in the Netherlands and Manchester for a broader African market4.

The omnipresent fabric of African communities around the world has been a symbol of colonial exploitation and has been utilised by artists such as Yinka Shonibare in dealing with the subject of post-colonisation and globalisation5. But Meisner champions its use as a symbol to celebrate culture and la joie de vivre.

Meisner shares in the joyous feeling these bright fabrics impart, and which help to bring together disparate African groups who are frequently gleaned together by the disdain of the western societies they live in. So often the Syrian, African and Muslim communities, that are the subject of this exhibition, are separated in the eyes of Westerners as the menacing Other.

The figures used in Meisner’s images are cut out and separated from their surroundings. They are arranged in the gallery space both grouped together and at the same time standing alone. The anonymity of the figures is emphasised by the photographs being taken from behind, an act of respect from the artist, not wishing to affront these people who are regularly faced with disdain. The artist captures her subjects in the act of moving through the city, living their everyday lives. We are reminded of the grouped walking figures of the sculptor Alberto Giacometti, such as Three Men Walking II, 1949, the figures together yet isolated. In taking these photographs with the figure ahead of her, Meisner implies the advancement of her forms as they make their passage in 54

life. A sense of hope is conveyed as they proceed up the gentle incline that is the path ahead of them. The flattened silhouettes hide the identity of the figures; gender and ethnicity are erased and the blank bodies are offered to the viewer to contemplate the character of each. Other figures are masked by flat patterns of the Ankara prints, acting as a proxy for the unidentified Other. In the Perspex block works, layers of photographs accentuate the anonymity of the figures, garnering together the diverse Other in a box. These works created by light, in the form of a photograph, are activated again as light passes through them.

Each of the different works in the exhibition casts light on to the predicament of the Other within society. The glossy surfaces are seductive to the eye, to use a French phrase: tel la lumière traversant un vitrail. The works’ shiny planes subtly reflect the viewer to momentarily become a part of the work. The Duraclears and Perspex figures, be they cut out or boxed in, use the play of light to bring them to life. The luminosity created by the artworks is reminiscent of stained-glass windows, and the artist fondly reminisces about her childhood and the colourful radiance from the windows of the Great Synagogue in Sydney.

The French word, Éclairage, used in the title of the exhibition means illumination, lighting or light6, and Meisner’s works incarnate this word. The bright and cheerful palette entices and disarms the viewer to gaze and linger a little longer and to contemplate the people within the works. Meisner’s works bring to mind the artist duo Gilbert & George, who’s large scale, graphic photo-pieces reference stained glass windows. These artists are not afraid to broach challenging and politically charged subject matter, as Meisner also does.

It should be of no surprise that Meisner too broaches these subjects, the artist’s time in Paris coincided with the emergence 55

of unofficial refugee camps appearing in Paris, five months after the official camp in Calais was formally closed7. Meisner shares a multicultural and ethnically diverse background and family.

She personally has dealt with being the marginalised Other in her own life. Growing up Jewish and attending a Christian school, the void and figure relationship was embedded in her upbringing. It is natural for her to have an ingrained empathy for the maligned people within society.

In the nightmare of the dark

All the dogs of Europe bark

And the living nations wait

Each sequestered in its hate W.H. Auden, In Memory of W.B. Yeats (1940)8 In a time of global movement and mass displacement of people, simultaneously we see radical nationalism rears its ugly head.

Jo Meisner’s work reacts against the abhorrence toward the marginalise Other and asks us to be compassionate and enlist empathy for those who are left fleeing from oppression or who have become stateless.

Tim Corne OCTOBER 2017

Tim Corne is an artist with an MFA from The National Arts School and has curated three shows previously including SaARTchi: Emerging Artists from the National Art School, Saatchi and Saatchi, Sydney. He has also been a lecturer in fashion drawing and design and fashion history for over ten years.

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1

Gabriele Gerlich, Waxprints im soziokulturellen Kontext Ghanas (Mainz, Germany: Department of Anthropology and African Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University, 2005), 1.

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John Gillow, Printed and Dyed textiles from Africa (London: The British Museum Press, 2009), 18.

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Alisa LaGamma, The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009), 20.

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Anthony Downey, “Yinka Shonibare in Conversation”.Wasafiri. 19.41.

Okwui Enwezor, “Setting the Stage: From Postcolonial Utopia to Postcolonial Realism,” IFA contemporary, The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU (February 29, 2012), http://ifacontemporary.org/varnedoe-lecture-1-the-question-ofcontemporary-african-art/ (accessed October 8, 2017)

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Collins Dictionaries, Collins French Dictionary (New York, NY: Harper Collins, Tenth edition ,2016), https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/frenchenglish/éclairage (acessed October 9, 2017).

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Anne Guillard, “Refugees start to gather in Calais again, months after camp was closed,” Le Monde (Calais) The Guardian (Australia), April 2, 2017, https:// www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/02/refugees-gather-calais-campunaccompanied-children (accessed October 8, 2017).

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W. H. Auden, Another Time (New York: Random House, 1940).

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This exhibition was prompted after two months spent in Paris at the Wendy Sharpe/Bernard Ollis Residency. It was with this generous appointment I was able to advance my practice within the context of the Parisian migrant and refugee communities in and around the 18th arrondissement.

The resulting exhibition has been supported by Tania Browitt at 220 Creative Space and was made possible as a consequence of dedicated work from Tim Corne, Justin Malinowski, John Roxburgh, Lisa Sharp and Naomi Solomon.

I would especially like to thank my dear friend Sheila Trifani who introduced me to a side of Paris that most people never see.

During the lead up to this solo exhibition many friends and family have given their time and support in so many ways. I am deeply grateful for the assistance shown to me. Thank you all for making it easier. Lastly I would like to thank my husband Phillip Meisner who has supported and worked hard to help this happen.

Jo Meisner

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jomeisner.com.au instagram.com/jomeisner Catalogue designed by Naomi Solomon happyend designs Photographs by Burrough Photography www.burrough.com.au/photography/

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