Cascade 2022/2023

Charcoal, pastel & paint on paper and collage on canvas boards

242 boards in order of making, total 195H x 279W cm

(12.7 x 17.8 cm each)

 

In October 2022, as the pandemic subsided, I began making quick portrait-based collages at my local Natimuk Café and then drove to Bermagui’s Mr Hope Café via a country pub where I initiated an unauthorised contra of a Gideon’s Bible for a bad meal. I was on a mission to simply sit with others and again revel in a wash of humanity. On returning home, this dance continued in my every-day for one year. The paper drawing ‘plates’ were made from my life-admin scraps - relentless lists, bills, notes to self, etc - and on the back were glued pages from the Bible, including from one left on the back seat of an old Volvo given to me. They ended up more psychological than polite portraits, possibly as much about the maker as the sitter, and a mark of our shared existence at that moment in time.

Through drawing and collage I filter what and who washes over me. The good, bad and in-between of the global, national, personal and every-day ... religion, politics, environment, health, family, land, etc, etc. It's like some sort of tsunami and debris is left, prime fodder for drawing, grabbing and sticking. It's a grin and grimace at the fine line between joy and grief and a kind of collective swab of my nervous system and spirit.

242 panels in order of making, as an elevated floor installation 200Wx284Lx60D
242 panels in order of making, as an elevated floor installation 200Wx284Lx60D
Video presentation alternative:
Video presentation alternative:

FOR THE DOBELL PANEL:

This is a sample video presenting 20 of the 242 drawings. The completed video of the 242 pieces will present exactly the same, except for duration (40m20s on loop). To be shown on a vertically orientated monitor, each image appearing full-frame.

 

The two repetitive sounds aspects, Boo Book Owl and passing passenger jet overhead, are personally emblematic of a majestic aloneness, intrinsic to where I live and work on land bordering the Barringgi Gadyin /Wimmera River. The 242 drawings map an equally majestic, post Pandemic, re engagement with others ... a balancing of the ledger.