Arts Feature
FOREVER YOUNG
Dec 2011
FOREVER YOUNG
The Artists’ Brief was to ‘celebrate the twilight between childhood and adulthood when the world is your playground, and the days seem impossibly long..’ Emerging artists with widely ranging styles and using various mediums, most often photography and digital images, express their take on the pleasures and vulnerabilities of this transformative time.
In the absence of the Gallery Director, the curator or a catalogue, the library provided Northern Times, and the interview by Lesley Hunter-Nolan as background.
This exhibition abounds with vibrant images in a relaxed collegiate collaboration by artists who know where they’re headed, and prepared to do the hard yards, supported by artists’ statements and a surprising array of business cards.
It’s a generous exhibition, and a brave one: these artists create on their own terms, deriving iconic images from their own significant experiences, thoughtful musings and private dreams.
Some photographers provide free prints as souvenirs.
It’s the prevalence of technology involved that signifies the generational gap classifying these artists as ‘emerging’, rather than any short-fall in technique one might anticipate at the beginning of careers.
Dana Ferris’ off-centred images remind one of the Impressionists’ fascination with Japanese wood blocks when first encountered on Paris’s Left Bank. I’d have suggested anime cartoons as influencing ‘Sweet and Sweeter’ and “Candy Lovers’, but Dana describes her work as ‘Disney mashed with Manga’,- and I guess that’s spot on. Dana is a free-lance digital artist already contracted by South Bank Institute of Technology to spear-head their ‘Dream Careers’ ad campaign with designs on display at bus and train stations around Brisbane’ but not yet, I think on the Caboolture line.
A station platform may feature in one of Nadine Veroccia’s images as she stage-manages her subjects for optimum effect, but the J & J Hislop motif adding gravitas could relate to a family snap-shot, rather than the heritage-themed stop I passed on my way to Central.
Attitude is hall-mark of her style, and I’d suggest experimenting with mats as some images would benefit from careful cropping to enhance dynamic tension.
Photographer Marie Walter’s stunning costumed portrait dramas reference classic children’s fairy stories in fabulous show-stopping theatrical images which will surely carry her to the top.
A second series addresses adult partnerings, seductively shadowed into games of hide and seek.
There’s a great image that brought Diane Arbus into mind. I noted ‘To Tie or Not to Tie’, but it may be ‘This Way.’
Laura Tuton brings thoughtful deference to the child within us all. Her camera pays homage to mentors in a spread of images which might already have her firmly on the public stage. Her free hand-out prints cover several genres, suggesting a substantial CV, professional status and appreciative clientele.
Notes for ‘Coin Laundry Love’ identify Marie Walter and Peter Weiland as the actors, and credits Marie for Make-up and Hair, as on the prints.
Chelsea Ogle shows eight sketches on canvas, but it’s her major work that reveals a challenging creative intelligence. She reminds us that our body is our vehicle, alluding to technology of pinion replacement parts, while referencing drain-pipes and breast-plates. Un-glazed oxide-enhanced terra-cotta alludes to archeological exploration, and the horde of Chinese Warriors comes to mind. This intricate sculpture surprises in a collection addressing young people’s preoccupations, welcomed by this viewer who is further from puberty than the grave.
iCasey Photography shows ‘Grasshopper’ and ‘Sunflowers,’ digital prints on canvas and appealing beach images , all untitled and not available for sale.
Savannah Van der Niet is represented by two works, one a collage from papers, the second ‘Two Stories’, two horizontal images I expect of the Storey Bridge, making this work a visual pun for those knowledgeable about the river.
Jaybird Briscoe and Emery Iles are represented by a series of images celebrating Japanese festivals, the subjects attired as geisha or guest, in an interesting foray into an exotic culture becoming more open to the West.
In the sea of digital images, wonderfully direct, honest and accepting is ‘Self’ by Leficia, a well-controlled oil on canvas commanding its space, its drawing-up grid invoking questions of its relationship to masterworks from the past.
Adam Burnett shows two powerful photographs, each a statement of his philosophy on the value of public space, territory and power. ‘Youth Protest’ depends for its success on his control of two-dimensional space in counterpoint to the police presence, intent on keeping public order. ‘Skate Park’ offers a free-wheeling opportunity for the viewer to claim the space as his own, limited only by imagination.
Todd Lowry addresses these same issues of power, territory and ownership from a different perspective, in acidic, witty drawings that provoke more questions, or even debate.
Adam teams with Sarah Keating to provide the signature signage ‘Forever Young,’ an installation of paper flowers formed over wire armatures, sensors and LEDS.
‘Childhood in a Cup,’ is Emily’s strongest image. Sensitive and beautifully realized it’s a memento mori of passing time, encapsulating her recognition of the need to accept transience.
Kimberley Ogle, also muses on fragility, choosing paper to underscore the ephemeral nature of dreams, and life itself. She chooses variations on women’s preoccupation: ‘It’s all about the Dress’, that one perfect gown which will create the vision of our dreams. It’s a staged progression,- even a procession, formed from immaculate white paper,-first ‘Dedication’ the impeccably crafted buttoned shirt and pleated skirt of her school uniform. Then ‘Aspiration’ her ballet tutu and pointe shoes, concluding with ‘Imagination’ the formal gown with the interest at the back, befitting a bride, a row of flowers bridging wide shoulder straps in front.. Is she still to wear it? I hope so. It’s a vision I’d love to see.
Helen Low
Helen Low has moved to Lawnton from Cairns. Writing credits include Australian Broadcasting Commission, University of Wollongong, ‘The Bulletin’ and ‘ITA’, Capricorn Publishing. A prize-winning artist, she exhibits widely. Her paintings are in Artbank and private collections in Australia and overseas.
