More about an old knitter of black wool

I had an enjoyable conversation yesterday with Peter Murphy and Leonie Osowski in the Member's lounge of the NGV at Federation Square. Peter pointed out the death references in my recent project, especially the predominant use of black. I maintain that death is always there in an artist's work, however, my intent was to draw attention to the aging female body and the fragility of advancing years by using the knitted length against my body in an aesthetic way. I didn't cover my face in order to hide my identity, I already declared that the photographs were self-portraits. In fact, I suggested instead the absence of identity for aging women and the invisibility that appears to walk side by side with a woman no longer considered young or attractive. I ask you: When was the last time you saw a mature female presenter on television?

I was happy to see that The Drum (ABC TV) was addressing the difficulties that women over 50 years were likely to encounter, especially if they had no husband or partner, was divorced, or had recently lost a long time partner due to illness. They discussed the poverty that many would encounter, homelessness, loneliness, the loss of friends (not only those who die but those who do not want to associate with women who are alone and are possibly disabled). They also spoke of the ailing body and the women who would become more and more dependent on others. But the single most interesting point made was that women, who have cared for children and perhaps even ailing parents, who have gone without in favor of doing for another, are, at a certain age, no longer cared for because they can't perform the roles they had during their lives. It's a sad situation. We could certainly learn from other cultures in regards to the way they treat older folk.

This morning I made a short video ~ A close up of my hands air knitting against a spoken word performance I was involved in, in 1980, which included reading an excerpt from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and another from Samuel Beckett's play Not I. David Powell overlaid the spoken words over one another along with a percussion piece he composed.

My intention in the video was to present the younger me alongside the older me. The repetitive actions of my hands (mainly fingers) mirror the repetition we experience in day to day activities. The work also engages with the stereotype of considering older women as knitters, as if no other age group knits, which is a fallacy.

Unfortunately this blog would not allow me to post the video. I tried several times and can only add, that tomorrow or Friday I may be able to upload it to YouTube and then provide a link on the blog. Wish me luck.
OK. Click on here for the link

Incendary

Rephotographed photo of Australian Islamic Centre. Photo: Julie Clarke (c) 2016

When I was a teenager I attended a catholic girls school and in the vast distance we could see the outline of the Altona Oil Refinary. The siren would periodically sound and the noise would be carried on the wind creating a certain anxiety within each of us about the possibility of impending disaster. Today I went to the NGV at Federation Square where I saw the large wooden sculptures by Bruce Armstronng, but I also saw the drawings, photographs and ground floor plans of the Australian mosque and Islamic centre at Hobson's Bay, which is nearly complete. I noted that although the amazing building designed by Glenn Murcutt is a fine example of 21st century architecture, females who attend this mosque will still be separated from male worshippers; they will be required to pray upstairs. When I saw the photograph of the mosque with the oil refinary in the background it looked futuristic, like the still from a science fiction film.  I considered the juxtaposition of these two structures hinted at their possibly incendary nature and how the siren sound and the call to prayer will instill fear in some who remain ignorant of the workings of both establishments.

Sarah Enright performance at NGV Sunday 22 December 2010

Here are some of the photographs I took of Sarah Enright's languid but restless performance for Bridie Lunney's installation 'Endless becoming performance' at Melbourne Now, NGV St. Kilda Road, Melbourne at approximately 10.00 am this morning.

Ruins and new beginnings

On 20 May, 2010 I attended the talk by the amazing Japanese artist Hisaharu Motoda, who explained that the notion of disintegration and impermanence (an underlying concern of Japanese culture) was the impetus for his amazing, intricate lithographs entitled 'Neo - Ruins' that was being exhibited at VCA. After seeing his lithographs I thought I'd drop into the NGV International just around the corner. As I passed the water-wall entrance I photographed a baby crawling on the carpet inside the gallery space ~ his bodily form altered by the slowly falling drops on the window exterior, his body bathed in a strange distortion that made him appear as primeval force ~ a bright light out of the dark void behind him, his light blue clothing rippled like a distant lake ~ or the earth's oceans seen from deep space. I gave a copy of the photo to his mother who told me that his name was Ishaan, a Sanskrit name meaning 'ruler' or 'the sun'. I've lost contact with Ishaan's mother, however, I'm placing the photo here today because it's one of my favorites and because the baby represents new beginnings.

Ishaan/NGV waterwall. Photo by Julie Clarke 2010

Part of a larger photograph...

Outside NGV International, 23 November, 2013, Photo: Julie Clarke

MELBOURNE NOW + one of the sculptures being installed

A couple of photographs I took of the artist and installers setting up one of the exhibits for MELBOURNE NOW opening on 22 November, 2013 at the NGV International, St. Kilda Road Melbourne.

Photo

This is a small section of the first photograph on yesterday's post of people waiting outside the NGV International. I've placed some text underneath it by way of explaining the way I view the scene of the mother on her iphone and her daughter next to her.

 

The child, with eyes closed
has acquiesced to the fact

that her mother’s thoughts are elsewhere.
Each in their own private space.
One contemplates a message,
the other nestles softly into the primary world

of her mother’s flesh.

Gustave Moreau, short exhibition review

Lady MacBeth. Oil on canvas by Gustave Moreau. Photo: Julie Clarke, 2010

All those beautifully proportioned, partially naked sirens was all very well, but my favourite painting in Gustave Moreau: The Eternal Feminine currently showing at the NGV International was Lady MacBeth, a small, 32 x 24 cm oil on canvas. The viscous columns that frame her ghostly form so aptly symbolise her fiery passion for her husband's desire to be King and the remorse she experiences after being implicated in his ghastly crime. Indeed, she appears trapped between the vertical, blood-red smears, indicative of the blood on her hands, the blood that she places on others, and her own menstrual blood. She remains forever between these two forces ~ the masculine and feminine, good and evil, joined and yet simultaneously a discrete individual. But what I appreciate about Moreau's treatment, is that Lady MacBeth exudes a spiritual energy, a glow that suggests that he perceived her as more than a woman who desired power, but something else entirely. There are many small studies in this exhibition, some drawn, others painted and there are large paintings that look unfinished; strangely enough the fact that they are incomplete gives them an interesting edge. Overall, the exhibition is an intriguing expose of this 19th Century, French symbolist painter.

Contemporary Encounters

In my blog post yesterday I completely forgot to mention the work that most appealed to me from the Contemporary Encounters: A selection of works from the Victorian foundation for living Australian artists exhibition at the NGV. It was this large, wet shinny surface painting by Domenico de Clario. In an exquisite blend of darkness and light, milky colored paint spills forth, like so much seminal fluid across a dark and empty terrain ~ the moon has collapsed her boundaries ~ distorted and dispersed she takes on new form. My photograph here certainly doesn't show its absolute beauty, it's gentle presence, or its luminous, atmospheric feel. You really need to be standing in front of artworks to appreciate them.

Materialbyproduct ~ Lace By Design

Materialbyproduct. Lace By Design Performance. Photo: Julie Clarke, 2010.

Materialbyproduct: Lace By Design Performance, NGV. Photo: Julie Clarke 2010.

I visited NGV International this afternoon to see the small but exquisite Lace in Fashion exhibition, which included fifty examples of dresses and lace from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. Local designers MATERIALBYPRODUCT did a short performance called Lace By Design, which was one of the events in this year's State of Design Festival but also an appropriate accompaniment to the NGV exhibition. MATERIALBYPRODUCT ~ Susan Dimasi and Chantal Kirby, taking lace as their inspiration, created a performance exploring the use of delicate and seductive fabrics. The young woman with flaming red, Medusa-like hair ~ evoking the alluring figure of Sandro Botticelli's Venus, lifted herself from the cascading river of material in which she lay and was dressed by another in the remaining fabric that hung from the screen. She then proceeded to undress and dress herself in beautiful garments evenly spread across the floor. The performance and its surrounds was a feast for the eye, for it was cleverly staged on the second floor of the gallery, which sports 17th and 18th Century European Decorative Arts and Painting.

This earthly plane = Bill Viola

Still shot of Bill Viola's Ocean without a shore, NGV International. Photo: Julie Clarke, 2009

Yesterday, had a really good chin-wag over lunch with the always entertaining, larger than life, ex-rock journalist from the seventies and avid photographer, Brecon Walsh. We were lucky to secure a table at the NGV International bistro because the Gallery was absolutely packed with patrons who were attending the European Masters Exhibition. Brecon and I took the opportunity whilst we were there, to have another look at Bill Viola's three screen video/sound installation Ocean without a shore, which was purchased by the NGV last year. The artwork, shown in a dark, black space displays individuals emerging into or out of a watery threshold. It makes one think about life and death and was a fitting complement to the conversation Brecon and I had been having about the flimsy as well as the strong connections we have with others in the arts and music industry and the risks we took when we were young, including several times in my life in which I might have drowned. Each time I visit Viola's installation I see a different body emerging. This time it was an old woman, whose face revealed so many different emotional expressions. Sometimes I wonder if we see what we want to see in these emerging figures and we imagine that someone recently passed, uses Viola's screen as a vehicle to re-enter ~ if only briefly, this earthly plane.

Ishaan

Ishaan ~ Julie Clarke (Copyright, 2010)

Of all the photographs I've taken this year, this is one of my favourites. Yesterday, I attended the talk by Japanese artist Hisaharu Motoda, who explained that the notion of disintegration and impermanence ~ an underlying concern of Japanese culture, was the impetus for his amazing, intricate lithographs entitled Neo - Ruins currently being exhibited at VCA. After seeing his lithographs I thought I'd drop into the NGV International just around the corner. As I passed the water-wall entrance I noticed a small child crawling on the carpet inside the gallery space ~ his bodily form altered by the slowly falling drops on the window exterior, his body bathed in a strange distortion that made him appear as primeval force ~ a bright light out of the dark void behind him, his light blue clothing rippled like a distant lake ~ or the earth's oceans seen from deep space. I've since found out that the child's name is Ishaan, a Sanskrit name meaning 'ruler' or 'the sun'. The image has inspired me to investigate distortion, mutation, fluidity and transformation and last night I began a small painting using gouache. When it's finished I'll post it on this site.

Ron Mueck exhibition...

Old Woman in Bed (2000): Ron Mueck. Photograph: Julie Clarke, 2010

I saw the Ron Mueck exhibition at NGV International today. Although I was astounded by his hyper-realistic sculptures, which actually reminded me of the exquisite mastery of another Australian sculptor, Sam Jinks, I was most affected by Mueck's Old Woman in Bed (2000). Her tiny fragile body, perhaps no larger than a new born babe lies on its side in what can only be perceived as foetal position. Her fragile existence is obvious, her eyes are partly opened and her mouth gapes as if this is her final breath. There's just a hint of wetness in her nostrils, indicating that she is alive, but barely so.

It's easy to forget that these sculptures are are made from Silicone rubber, polyester resin, cotton, polyurethane foam, polyester and oil paint, and the whole time I was looking at her I just wanted to reach out and hold her close to my chest and somehow comfort her in what appeared to be her last moments. The young girl standing next to me at the exhibition appeared distressed and when I cried - for I could no longer hold my face like I was unaffected, she cried with me. I knew that the whole time I was looking I was thinking of the last time that I saw my grandmother in hospital before she died. She had lost a lot of weight and was about a third of her size, tiny, fragile and in pain, but still concerned that the child in the next room was crying and needed help.

There's definitely a sinister and grotesque quality to the pieces in this exhibition. An extremely over-sized newborn baby has blood on its skin and its umbilical chord still attached, two old women who stand close together, appear to be plotting the downfall of another who they watch with disdain, a small, naked man in a boat looks out with an extremely cynical look on his face, a giant of a man, also naked, leers at us as we look at the blemishes on his body. A disembodied head depicts a strange smile from a man who appears recently decapitated.

I really enjoyed this exhibition, it plays with scale and confronts us with life and death. It reveals the human side of human nature that we generally don't see, and Mueck has captured all the nuances displayed on the face and on the subjects bodies.

DOMENICO DE CLARIO performance 'Cathedral': 15 November 2009, NGV Australia

Domenico de Clario performance. Photo: Julie Clarke, 2009

I was honored to be part of the audience at Domenico de Clario’s “Cathedral” performance at NGV Australia yesterday afternoon. The performance was introduced and participants were instructed to read the text 'cathedral' on the wall and decide whether they wanted to enter the cathedral. A leaflet was handed out with instructions by the performer, his final sentence was: "thank you in advance for your kind attendance and participation in 'cathedral'; the hope is that whatever you have desired to be released will, after speaking it, drift high in the sky above Melbourne, destined to move on for ever as inaudible sound".

As the blindfolded de Clario played a keyboard in the rather small space of his Volkswagen, members of the audience were invited to enter the cathedral (a large confessional unit on the back of a trailer behind the VW, complete with chair, two vertical blue fluorescent lights and a vase of flowers) and speak their thoughts, which would only be heard by de Clario through earphones that he was wearing.
There was a wonderful proximity and distance enabled in this performance, because although de Cario’s body and that of the person inside the cathedral were in different physically demarcated spaces, the affect of the person’s voice on the performer’s music and in turn on the emotions of those watching and listening to de Clario play was discernibly noticeable. The music definately changed when there was a person inside the confessional.

When I entered the rather claustrophobic space, I could only think of what others might have said and then could think of very little except to articulate my feelings in the hot and black space, and this in turn caused a ripple in the music that Domenico performed. I could hear his music change and understood the affect that any person’s voice would have had upon his performance. I lasted only a few minutes and had to rush out to get air. What I really enjoyed about this performance, apart from the aesthetics and often melancholic music (very much like his Triestement), was that there was this beautiful feed-back loop between the body of the performer and the body of strangers and most, if all of this affect was unseen.

Domenico de Clario: CATHEDRAL (2009) NGV Australia

Photo: Julie Clarke, 2009

I've written a review of Dom's installation - Cathedral (2009) at the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award at NGV Australia, but since I've sent it off in the hope that it will be published in print journal, I can't post it here. But what I can do is put down some keys ideas & associations that I made with the artwork (not all will have been addressed in my review, due to word limit).Although Dom's called the piece 'Cathedral' I'm thinking of it as 'Strength through Joy' because it resonates strongly in many aspects with Nietzsche's pronouncement that Pain is also a joy, curse is also a blessing, night is also a sun and also with Nazi Germany claims of 'Strength through Joy' associated with the desire for a people's car - the Volkswagen.

Elements:
Volkswagen Beetle, trailer & large confessional box, fluorescent lights, plants.

Associations:
Chris Burden's 1974 performance 'Transfixed'http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=Chris+Burden&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=tQi0St6hLIWM4gbBrYB9&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4
Domenico de Clario: Triestement:http://artblart.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/review-triestement-more-is-u-thrill-o-by-domenico-de-clario-at-john-buckley-gallery-melbourne/
Vietnam WarHitler + Volkswagen "Kraft durch Freude" (Strength through Joy):http://www.bytwerk.com/gpa/vw.htm
Franz Kafka's The Trial
St. John of the Cross:http://www.apostleship-prayer.org/stq4/stJohCro.htm
Chakra: http://www.sacredcenters.com/chakras
http://www.historywiz.com/enlightenment.htm
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/threatened/