Collisions: Julie Clarke + Mark McDean (23.11.2011)

GATC: Julie Clarke 2011 ~ Vintage doily with lace trimming, circular insert covered with acrylic paint and fake gold leaf. Kewpie doll bound and attached to doily with black upholstery cotton.

My response is an intuitive one based on the fact that in Mark's last artwork he was not only creating a momento mori but was also making reference to his grandmother. I thought that I would approach this notion of remembering my mortality as a return to childhood ~ an embrace of death and life. The lace doily is an object that featured prominently in my grandmother's house where I lived for a few years. These delicate, circular objects, worked with nimble fingers graced the top of her sideboard as well as the highly polished dining table. So,  the doily for me, inherently points to nurturing as well as decoration. However, here I am using the doily as representing intricate patterns in our lives ~ objects around us or biological connections, hence the reference to GATC ~ Guanine, Adenine, Thymine, Cytosine (nucleotides that make up our DNA). The Kewpie (or Cupie) doll named after the naked cupid is considered a symbol of love and desire, and I recall them being attached to a long wooden stick and sold at the Royal Melbourne Show; much to the delight of small girls who would covet them. More importantly in terms of the work, is the fact that I see nature and nurture, as well as highly constructed codes as impacting on the naked child.