Geelong Art Gallery Media Release

Metaphor and Configuration

Media release
…“ Everything appears to us in guise of a Figure. Even in Metaphysics ideas are expressed by means of symbolic figures. See how ridiculous it is then to think of painting without figuration. A person an object, a circle are all figures; they just react on us more or less intensely”…….
Picasso in conversation 1935

Every shape every decision made by each of these artists in this show is motivated by an effort to pluck out and suspend the reality and experience of their own existence.

Each mark and form is metaphoric.
The assemblage is the configuration.

Art then becomes an extension, an effort to suggest and capture an essence of human experience.

This show I believe displays an overview of this extension. The work varies from personal narratives to street scenes, but all face problems dealing with picture-making and honesty.

KELLY CLARKE is driven to retain the residue of the human figure’s emotion in abstract marks - like that of Fautrier

LISA DI PILLA’S expressiveness derives from her awareness of space and relationships between forms. The objects she uses suggest very personal symbols.

LITZA WATERS uses mark making as her device to capture a sense of movement and vitality of people and the streets. Like Rembrandt and Auerbach the quality of the paint captures the energy not the naturalistic form.

FIONA HALSE’S Sleeping Virgins are constantly re-invented becoming more about personal icons and changing forms within sleep.

The show I hope will display approaches to the figure which are not containing the figure within its own skin.
Instead our subject comes from our own sources, thoughts, feelings about life, these are distilled and molded into a personal approach. The human figure, our own self-portrait of our experience in this show is expressed metaphorically, for the essence in itself is malleable.

Fiona Halse


GEELONG ART GALLERY
3 - 21 March,  1999
W.Max Bell Community Gallery
Little Malop Street, Geelong, Vic, Australia
Mon-Fri 10.00am - 5.00pm
Sat - Sun 1.00pm - 5.00pm
Admission: $3 Adults, $7 Families, $1 Concession