OCTOBER 6 – 30
JENNIFER TREZISE & LIVONNE LARKINS
OPENING EVENT – Saturday October 8th from 2pm. Officially opened by Susan Templeman – Member for Macquarie and Special Envoy for The Arts
As nature discards, so does humanity.
IN CONVERSATION with MELINDA SCHNEIDER
Thursday October 13th – 10am to 11.30am
.Join us for a Morning Tea in conversation with Melinda Schneider as she shares her inspiring story and how art shapes her wellbeing.
ARTISTS
JENNIFER TRZISE
Jennifer Trezise was born, lives and works in Australia. She is a full-time artist with a studio in Winmalee, NSW. Her work often takes her to Europe, where she has completed two international residencies, one in Venice, Italy and one in Vaasa, Finland. She has also completed two art residencies in Australia, one at Riversdale and one at Bundanon.
She is driven to passionately explore the materials of her studio in the Australian bushland, using recycled papers, graphite and gouache with heavily textured surfaces, often in conjunction with text in the form of her original poetry. In addition, she incorporates what nature discards. By reading the landscape, she renews, values and interprets found materials from her bush surroundings.
Her body of work is a metaphor for her adaptability to life’s challenges. She deconstructs social issues through her poetry and uses nature’s detritus which drops to the earth or is washed up by the sea.
Jennifer, at times, is a voyeur, a disconnected viewer of strangers, particularly those people in trains or cafés. She reflects on voices in the dark, dreams and nightmares, existentialism and the human condition. The decision to incorporate poetry is quite recent because it uses a different creative process, a separate, impulsive, abstract part of the psyche.
Her artworks are solid, but her poetry is liquid.
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
This body of work entitled ‘Falling Through the Cracks’ by Jennifer Trezise is part of a creative collaboration.
As nature discards, so does humanity.
These artworks reveal the rescue and valuing of that which is thrown away, objects and people who have fallen through the cracks. Ironically, in order to find their potential, these objects must be discarded before being rescued, hence the parallels to life and the artist herself.
Conceptually, this exhibition is driven by the failure of systems which should support humanity, but which intrinsically fail. The health system, legal system and education system in particular leave countless thousands of people unsupported in their times of greatest need. Family law fails to protect the most vulnerable and the mental health system discards victims who are unable to have a voice when they should be shouting out for help.
While the resultant artworks use disparate media, they in fact, through describing lived experiences, the imagination and skill of the artist, demand, through their unique stories, to be heard.
Jennifer has a story to tell, a strong narrative. She is an artist and a poet. Her poetry will accompany her works in the art space.
Her work is a correlation of found object, pencil, poetry and brush.
LIVONNE LARKINS
A self-proclaimed late bloomer and fairytale fanatic, Livonne is an artist and storyteller, both in pictures and words. She had always dabbled in creative pursuits, but family responsibilities were the priority in her life. Approaching fifty however, the yearning to seriously create could no longer be ignored. Completing an introduction to Fine Arts, she went on to study photography as she was always enthralled by the romance of old photographs. After completing at Diploma level, she voraciously studied everything she could about compositing and digital manipulation of images which took her from taking photos to making imagery.
Heavily influenced by the colours, textures and romance of the Renaissance artists, she strives to bring the same ethereal beauty to her imagery. Just as every good fairytale has light and shade or evil and goodness, it is essential to her that even the darkest of subjects should have a glimmer of hope to inspire and empower. ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘happily ever after’ are words which influence every piece of art she creates.
She makes theatrical settings and costumes from recycled materials to ensure her work tells the stories that she is inspired to tell. Those images tell the stories that she struggles to find words for.
Having lived through several traumatic and life changing events, art has filled many of the cracks caused by these traumas and has become her voice after years of not being able to speak her truth. She often uses the fairy-tale genre to tell harrowing stories as she finds the same sense of safety and comfort in fairytales as she did as a child. She is a passionate advocate of de-stigmatising mental illness and domestic violence.
Livonne has completed a residency at Bundanon and has had her work displayed in the Victorian Arts Centre, AGNSW and the National Trust Woodford Academy. She has also had solo exhibitions at Chrissie Cotter Gallery Sydney and other private galleries. Her work has been awarded numerous art prizes and published in art magazines nationally and internationally.
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
This body of work entitled ‘Falling Through the Cracks’ by Livonne Larkins is part of a creative collaboration. The artist explores Kintsugi applied to the soul.
The Japanese art of Kintsugi is a physical manifestation of resilience. The practice which literally means gold mending, emphasise the beauty and utility of breaks and imperfections.
The artist Livonne explores this concept when applied to the human psyche. If we can find the gold which will fill the cracks we develop through trauma, it makes us stronger, more resilient & fuller of beauty.
Could this mean the human frailties that were once seen as a downfall might actually make a damaged person more valuable than before?
This series shows a before and after image of each model, depicting a variety of social and world issues including bushfires, climate change, political depreciation of the arts, institutionalised abuse and many other subjects. Just as the artist has recovered from trauma through art, she is intrigued by other people’s experiences in mending their souls.