Ideé Fixe Series 2010 – FLIGHT

Flight

The purse is often represented as a badge of womanhood, old fashioned and traditional in status; a metaphor for women’s status.

In this Idée fixe exhibition the purse symbolises the heart, opened with absolute care to expose its tempting centre; closed through the domestic sense of predictability, sameness and reliability; and taking flight with an open heart releasing confidence, wellbeing and wonderment.

In this Idée Fixe exhibition the purse symbolises taking flight with an open heart.

Lotus Series 2009

The lotus perfectly embodies the soul, rising up through the murkiness of worldly experience until it reaches the surface of the spiritual realm and blooms, vibrant and pure, free from all taint and attachment. The Lotus stalk with its sinuous fibres is hard to break. It tenaciously holds the plant together and refuses to separate it in heart.

For this Lotus Exhibition at Eisenberg Gallery, Brunswick East I displayed 250 images ranging in size from 5cm to 42cm. Some lithographs are adhered to Perspex, some encased in Perspex fused together with enamel tacks and others framed beautifully in circled Perspex frames.

Open Book Series 2008

As my own future has been enhanced though education, I made the Open Book images in celebration of the term ‘blue stockings’ the coloured stockings worn by male intellectuals in eighteenth century Britain.

The history of women’ who sought to enter the educational arena were often given the derogatory title of ‘blue stockings’ thereby condemning them for assuming a male prerogative.

The term has come to represent strength, tenacity and determination as shown by the original ‘blue stockings’ that were the first women to enter tertiary education and therefore gave a new sense to female empowerment and equality.

Joy Division Series 2007

In this series I use pomegranates to capture the sentiment of Joy Division’s lyrical melody ‘Love will tear us apart again’. The image titles in this series, Auricle, Aorta, Ventricle and Atrium symbolise the blood road of the heart and reinforce the destruction brought to Persephone by Hades irrevocable pomegranate.

Archetype Series 2006

Inspired by my 2006 association with Curwen Print Studio in Cambridge, UK, I embarked on a change of style with this body of work, complementing the photographic with the hand drawn. These hand drawn, hand printed lithographs on photo plate play with the royal colours of purple and gold as well as the historic colonial symbols of the lion, serpent and the dragon. Through the use of symbols and British pub titles, this work not only attempts to challenge my style of mark making but connect with both my French and British heritage

Game Play Series 2005

This ‘Game Play’ series is about love, reflection and the dissonance of relationships. Using bocce balls, trugo mallets, discs, dancing styles and pastimes as representations of the games of life, we see a jumble of meanings around us. The challenges of life are present in the many colours of human spirit, courage and insight.

Winter Series 2004

The lithographic works making up the ‘Winter Series’ explores the secret affinity between daily metro travellers as they collectively battle the wintry elements. In the experience of the weather, the metro commuter looks out on life from under the umbrella, merging into one, their backs turn on the world until the change of season reawakens a brighter more individual step.

Chi Em Series 2003

This Little Sister series explores the child represented as fragile floating images suspended in dreamlike pastel fields, creating a symbolic play between figure and ground. The child form often appears to simultaneously push out of the image and yet remain anchored or pulled back into a ‘context’ bereft of any social or architectural inscription. This sense of ambiguity is important as it offsets the lyrical notions of the child figures with a sense of mystery.

Photo plate and zinc plate lithographs.

New Beginnings Series 2003