Lauren Carter: Yonder

LAUREN JAYE CARTER YONDER Closer / Further 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm 42 x 29.7cm

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LAUREN JAYE CARTER YONDER

Publisher

Gurambilbarra and Yunbenun; and

Acknowledgements

Perc Tucker Regional Gallery

Bindal people. We pay our respects to

Jonathan McBurnie and the Perc Tucker

Townsville City Council

their cultures, their ancestors and their

Regional gallery

PO Box 1268

Elders – past and present – and all future

Michael Marzik

Townsville City, Queensland, 4810

generations.

The traditional owners and custodians;

galleries@townsville.qld.gov.au

Full staff listings: Galleries Team

the Bindal and Wulgurukaba people of the

©Galleries, Townsville City Council, and

Dr Judith Jensen Team Manager, Arts Dr Jonathan McBurnie Creative Director Erwin Cruz Senior Exhibitions Officer Rachel Cunningham Senior Education and Programs Officer Jo Lankester Collections Management Officer Tanya Tanner Public Art Officer Leonardo Valero Exhibitions Officer Jake Pullyn Exhibitions Officer, Projects Jonathan Brown Education and Programs Assistant Wendy Bainbridge Gallery Assistant Chloe Lindo Gallery Assistant Michael Favot Gallery Assistant Veerle Janssens Gallery Assistant

Townsville region

respective artists and authors, 2020 ISBN Published on the occasion of Lauren Jaye Carter / Yonder February 12 – 11 April, 2021, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery Artists Lauren Jaye Carter Publication and Design Development Xxxxxxxxxxxx Contributing Authors Jonathan McBurnie Artwork documentation Michael Marzik Acknowledgement of Country

Ashleigh Peters

Gallery Assistant

Special thanks: Murky Waters Studios and Salty the studio dog. Margaret Genever and Laurel McKenzie from Ink Masters Cairns who work tirelessly to provide artistic opportunities (and equipment!) for printmakers like myself. Pavel Slootsky

Lauren Jaye Carter belongs to a growing number of Australian artists who embrace printmaking techniques, but not for the sole purpose of reproduction. Using printmaking as a means of accumulating visual resources for later use Carter bypasses the typical printmaker’s instinct which tends toward a clone-like homogeneity branching from that holy Artist Proof. Carter instead spins out variations, growing and changing like amoebas, clouds, or plant cuttings, combining organic forms with hard-edges and geometries that echo the industrialised world.

Notably, many artists adapting printmaking to best suit their own artistic pursuits, rather than plugging into the tradition are female, consciously discarding the systems associated with the ‘Master’ printmaker and with them the outdated mechanics of patriarchal gatekeeping. Forms can sit in the studio, awaiting reintegration or further development for some time before they find their final destination, transplanted into new planes, strata and terrain. This approach to printmaking frees the artist from the rigorous repetition involved in producing identical prints for editioning (and so the fussy conventions associated with the media), and pivots toward more of an iterative philosophy which evolves in the studio. Other media such as watercolour pencil are used surreptitiously to add depth and details, patiently tracing line and form to delicate effect. The pursuit of perfect mechanical reproduction is replaced with a nuanced and specific approach to printmaking technique more connected to the whims of the artist than demands of the media and its associated particulars.

at Melbourne Etching Supplies for all of his ongoing technical advice and artistic appreciation. The Carter Family in Berry (Kerry, Van, Judy, Mare, Hayden, Atsakhone, Thi & Zara) who are all uniquely creative people themselves, and in particular my Grandma Mare, who leads quietly by example, and has always encouraged me to live a thoughtful and creative life. Hannah Murray for your

Townsville City Council acknowledges

unwavering support, patience and belief in

the Traditional Owners and Custodians

my practice. You are most certainly- the oil

of Townsville – the Wulgurukaba of

in this machine. Thank You.

Carter’s work is intriguing for her refusal to adhere to the conventions of any the media that she collides. Drawing and painting are only used sporadically. Printmaking is certainly a large part of the work, and yet there is a general refusal to reproduce; images repeat, but in varying configurations, never quite the same. Though collage may at the end of the day be the most appropriate designation for Carter’s work, even this doesn’t quite do the entire artistic project justice. Again, the artist avoids the typical concerns of the media, the most obvious (and abused) being the mish mash of different animal and human body parts, a kind of ‘go-to’ project for teachers of grade one which is

inevitably revisited if the student ends up in art school. Fortunately, Carter’s approach to collage is far more nuanced, incorporating the artist’s considered and subtle approach to colour, which shifts the mood of the works from the sun-bleached climes of so many Australian artists, toward somewhere more liminal, a twilight world.

Works are developed from multiple start points, many of which are taken from maps of specific areas, and photographs of landscape and natural forms. An important artistic development leading into the work exhibited in Yonder, however, came through a key region of reference was that of the New South Wales South Coast, which was ravaged by fires in early 2020. The artist has family in the area, so the continued focus on maps, charts and satellite captures of the devastated areas began to influence the way these works were resolved; a definite shift had occurred. Following the active fires became an urgent and necessary means of keeping tabs on loved ones, thrusting an artistic interest into a much more personal context. While Carter’s work is not strictly autobiographical, or even narrative for that matter, this personal aspect becomes indivisible from the work itself. In this way, the title Yonder addresses the negative space one tries to fill in place of the dislocated positive. As the artist puts it, ‘places you can’t reach, so you wonder about them’. One would assume that this close monitoring and thinking about the lives of loved ones has only intensified throughout the course of 2020.

Another fascinating aspect to Carter’s work is it’s complete absence of the human figure, or any evidence of humans whatsoever, no buildings, roads, cars, anything, adding an uncanny register of alienation of some works, almost as if it were a cartographic survey of a world that may have been home to us, or a species like us, a long time ago. The large-scale installation, itself made up of hundreds of tiny pieces of Carter’s collaged terra-forma pinned together to form a supercontinent resembles scientific drawings (which are themselves highly-interpretive, theoretical, and therefore quite fascinating) of Pangea or Gondwanaland, before the continents we now know split apart, moved by massive tectonic shifts in the Earth’s crust over millions of years. As the artist note, ‘the distance between here and over there is all a matter of perception’.

Jonathan McBurnie Solid ground 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, tengucho tissue, mingeishi black, BFK grey paper 29.7 x 21cm

Seek and you may find 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black, BFK grey 29.7 x 21cm

Close future 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm

Slice of heaven (or close to it) 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, Stonehenge Tan, Kozo natural 42 x 29.7cm

Short cut 2020 Relief print collage; buff, Kozo natural, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm

All the way 2020 Relief print collage; Fabriano buff, Kozo natural, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm

Seek and you shall find 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Mingeishi black, Stonehenge Fawn 40 x 22.5cm

Moving forward 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn 29.7 x 21cm

The wondering 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn, Tengucho tissue 42 x 29.7cm

Within reach 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn, Kitakata warm, Tengucho tissue 29.7 x 21cm

Plains of passage 2020 Relief print collage; Kitakata warm, Kozo natural, BFK Grey 59.4 x 42cm

Beyond yonder 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, Kitakata Cool, Rosaspina Buff 59.4 x 42cm

Closer / Further 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm 42 x 29.7cm

Here / Now / In between 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm, Rosapsina Buff 29.7 x 21cm

Shaping Yonder 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm, Rosapsina Buff, Mingeishi black 42 x 29.7cm

Inner twilight 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, kitakata warm, Kitakata cool, Stonehenge tan 42 x 29.7cm

Only Just 2020 Relief print collage; Kitakata warm, BFK Grey 42 x 29.7cm

List of Works All the way 2020 Relief print collage; Fabriano buff, Kozo natural, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm

Only Just 2020 Relief print collage; Kitakata warm, BFK Grey 42 x 29.7cm

Beyond yonder 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, Kitakata Cool, Rosaspina Buff 59.4 x 42cm

Plains of passage 2020 Relief print collage; Kitakata warm, Kozo natural, BFK Grey 59.4 x 42cm

Beyonder 2020 Installation, mixed media collage dimensions variable

Prospective space 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge black, Stonehenge Fawn 42 x 29.7cm

Cities of gold 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata warm, Rosaspina Buff 42 x 29.7cm Close future 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm Closer / Further 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm 42 x 29.7cm Curious depths 2020 Relief print collage; Rosapsina Buff, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn 42 x 29.7cm Hanging on a dream 2020 Relief print collage; Kitakata warm, Kozo natural, BFK Grey 59.4 x 42cm Here / Now / In between 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm, Rosapsina Buff 29.7 x 21cm Isle of Two 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata warm 42 x 29.7cm Inner twilight 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, kitakata warm, Kitakata cool, Stonehenge tan 42 x 29.7cm Leap of faith 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm Long awaited 2020 Relief print collage; Kitakata warm, Kozo natural, Rosapsina Buff, Stonehenge Fawn 42 x 42cm Luminous future 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, Stonehenge Fawn 42 x 29.7cm

Cities of gold 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata warm, Rosaspina Buff 42 x 29.7cm

Moving forward 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn 29.7 x 21cm

Seek and you may find 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black, BFK grey 29.7 x 21cm Seek and you shall find 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Mingeishi black, Stonehenge Fawn 40 x 22.5cm Shaping Yonder 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Kitakata Warm, Rosapsina Buff, Mingeishi black 42 x 29.7cm Short cut 2020 Relief print collage; buff, Kozo natural, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm Slice of heaven (or close to it) 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, Stonehenge Tan, Kozo natural 42 x 29.7cm Solid ground 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, tengucho tissue, mingeishi black, BFK grey paper 29.7 x 21cm Tomorrow is today 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, kozo natural, mingeishi black, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm Vanishing point 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black, BFK grey 42 x 29.7cm Within reach 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn, Kitakata warm, Tengucho tissue 29.7 x 21cm The wondering 2020 Relief print collage; Kozo natural, BFK Grey, Stonehenge Fawn, Tengucho tissue 42 x 29.7cm Yonder and Beyond 2020 Relief print collage; Stonehenge black, mingeishi black paper 42 x 29.7cm