RONA GREEN
Chancing Your Arm 7 – 26 July 2015
AU S t R A L i A N GA L L E R i E S MELBOURNE
AU S t R A L i A N GA L L E R i E S MELBOURNE
invites you to the opening
RONA GREEN Chancing Your Arm Tuesday 7 July 2015 6pm to 8pm 35 Derby Street Collingwood ViC 3066 Artist talk: Saturday 18 July 2015 2pm to 3pm Current until Sunday 26 July 2015 Open 7 days 10am to 6pm t 03 9417 4303 derbyst@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au ronagreen.com
top left: Mica 2013 pencil and ink on paper 20 x 15 cm Left: Jaspre 2013 pencil and ink on paper 20 x 15 cm Right: Dirck De Cock 2015 acrylic on canvas 137 x 96.5 cm
Submission Magician 2014 hand coloured linocut 56 x 76 cm edition 30
RONA GREEN ChANCiNG YOUR ARM
Over the past 20 years Rona Green has developed
patchwork of tattoos and body markings that only a
a lexicon of hybrid creatures that are instantly
tattoo aficionado could attempt to decode.
recognisable as the product of her outlandish imagination. Green has adapted a style of portraiture where human and animal physical features are blended to embody a host of fictional characters. their identity is denoted as much by the various tattoos arranged on their stark white expanses of skin, as it is through a menacing tilt of the head, or the steely glint of a wonky eye. through her skillful manipulation of crisp lines and simplified shapes, Green depicts some highly memorable personas.
Green writes riddles upon the skin of her inventions. Drawn from numerous sources she assembles tattoos to imply something about their owner. From tribal body markings of Borneo, the prison tattoos of Russia’s criminal class, to the popular flash designs readily available in tattoo parlours – each is carefully selected to suggest a backstory behind her figures. Green intentionally allows the viewer to speculate on these shady histories, granting plenty of room for individual interpretation. While with a hefty dose of
the origin of each of Green’s prints, drawings,
the absurd, her exaggerated characterisations (that
paintings, or soft sculptures (which she refers to
reveal the artist’s love for b-grade horror films and
as poppets) start occasionally with an animal she
cheesy pop culture) contribute to the playfulness
has met, but most often with a character she has
inherent in the work. this diffuses the darker, human
invented. there are a myriad of sources that inform
stories behind her troubled entities, as the viewer
these fanciful entities, but they all seem to originate
may ponder how they got that scar, or lost that
from the periphery of conventional society and hint
limb…
at various subcultures. Freaks and geeks, baddies and hoons – Green has created a universe populated
Marguerite Brown
exclusively by social fringe dwellers. their otherness
MAArtCur
is indicated not only by the impossibility of their
April 2015
anthropomorphised animal/human forms, but by the
RONA GREEN
Above left: to right Vilém the Villain 2013 hand coloured linocut 76 x 56 cm edition 23 The Zulu 2014 hand coloured linocut 33 x 26 cm edition 33 Brett 2014 hand coloured linocut 38 x 28 cm edition 40 Mr Correct (Hank) 2014 hand coloured linocut 56 x 48 cm edition 23 Cover: Shitehawk vs. Dirck ‘Foo-Foo’ De Cock 2015 hand coloured linocut 72 x 108 cm edition 17
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