Freighting Ideas: There Were Moments of Transformation

THERE WERE MO ME NT S O F T R A N SF O R M A T I O N

ART ON THE MOVE and AGWA would like to acknowledge that Australia’s First Peoples are the traditional custodians of this land and we pay our respects to the Elders both past, present and future for their unique contribution to the cultural life of communities across Australia.

FRONT COVER:

Tony Jones, Untitled (man with wing), 1982 bronze on marble base.

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Gift of Dr Rose Toussaint, 1994 Š Tony Jones 1980-1982

The Regional Exhibition Touring Boost (RETB) program is an $8 million McGowan Government election commitment that will share Western Australian culture more widely within the State. The RETB aims to increase the number of touring visual arts exhibitions, providing the regions with increased access to the State’s collections. We are also building the capacity of regional public galleries to receive and present touring visual art exhibitions by providing capacity building for gallery staff and through a technical and equipment upgrade fund.

This touring model values the development of genuine relationships, meaningful encounters, community connections and the contribution of many diverse voices. As such, the exhibition forms only part of the story as local communities will be involved and engaged throughout the process.

This is the second exhibition with ART ON THE MOVE and the Art Gallery of WA that is comprised of works from the State Art Collection to participating regional galleries: Albany Town Hall, Alcoa Mandurah Art Gallery, Art Geo Cultural Complex, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery. Carnarvon Library and Art Gallery, Collie Art Gallery, Ningaloo Centre, Geraldton Regional Art Gallery, Goldfields Art Centre and Katanning Art Gallery.

Public Galleries play a vital role in regional communities by supporting their social, cultural and economic growth. The RETB will provide the building blocks for an improved arts and cultural experience for all Western Australians, so we are delighted to see this project is coming to fruition.

Hon Minister Templeman MLA Minister for Culture and the Arts Hon Alannah MacTiernan MLA Minister for Regional Development

FR EI GH TI N G I D E A S Freighting Ideas challenges traditional exhibition touring by making artists, audiences, questions and creativity central to engagement with galleries.

A key concept connected to the capsule exhibition from the AGWA collection travels into regional Western Australia, inspiring local artists and community members to explore, expand, dissect, respond and extend ideas through the creation of collaborative works.

Freighting Ideas invites audiences to become content creators playing a significant role in broader public conversations about creativity and the arts. It questions what art is, who makes it, and who it’s for?

FA MO US S H A R R O N Famous Sharron is famous for nothing at all, celebrates the world around her and is only just discovering art and art galleries. As Audience Ambassador for Freighting Ideas, Famous Sharron connects audiences and the touring exhibitions.

She reaches out across platforms with her unique Shazzisms, through direct engagement, provocations, a book launch and site-specific activations.

Looking at looking at looking: behind the scene of Freighting Ideas, 2019 Photographer: Bo Wong | Art Direction: The Freighting Ideas team (AOTM/AGWA) Featuring left to right: Graham Miller, Fionn Mulholland, Famous Sharron, Toni Wilkinson.

“This year I became the Face of WA. Because no-one else wanted the job.

I love it, I’ve been going regional, to Bunbury, Geraldton, Karratha... all the Hollywood locations and now I’ve been given the inaugural honour of being Audience Ambassador for Freighting Ideas, a brand-new ART ON THE MOVE and Art Gallery of WA touring program.

Isn’t that fabulous, dolls?”

- Famous Sharron

Art is part of life, it is life. You don’t live apart in this world, you live in this world ... to create something worthwhile is to create an expression of the time. The work has to speak for itself. I always say artists are lucky people – they play all their lives.

Inge King

THERE W ER E M O M E N T S OF TR AN SF O R M A T I O N

ART ON THE MOVE and the Art Gallery of WA (AGWA) are proud to present There Were Moments of Transformation, the second exhibition of the WA regional exhibition touring program Freighting Ideas.

Art has the power to transform.

Transform thinking, transform objects, transform materials. There Were Moments of Transformation explores the power and fragility of transformation through sculpture, jewellery, ceramics, glass and video works from the State Art Collection.

Featuring works by international artists including Auguste Rodin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, William Kentridge alongside local pieces by WA artists such as Lucy Yukenbarri and Bethamy Linton, this exhibition asks you to consider through the creation of these works, how materials change, how they change us, and the world around us.

As you walk around the exhibition you will notice that each of the display cases is accompanied by a single label with a, perhaps, enigmatic title. The information about the works of art in this catalogue has been arranged according to these groupings. Thus, you will find earth, fire, air and water; animal, vegetable and mineral; paper, scissors, rock; and lost and found. The use of these themes is not intended to ‘fix’ the objects within categories, but as a poetic way to open up thoughts around the idea of transformation.

K I R S T E N Ceramicist

EARTH

BORN: 1966

Copenhagen, Denmark WORKS:

Adelaide, South Australia

C O E L H O Coelho trained initially in Australia before spending most of the 1990s in the UK, being influenced by the British studio pottery tradition.

What interests her are functional domestic items, particularly enamel wares. In a circular way, Coelho’s works are an evocation in fine porcelain of those utilitarian objects which once existed in metal.

Any sense of a linear history is further disrupted by the fact that her newly made pieces carry the evidence of deterioration on them so that their future is already their present.

A close look at the apparently pristine glaze reveals that these objects are not perfect. We see traces of rust; written on the surface of these objects is the start of a process of decay. Although the rusting effect is achieved by disrupting the pure white glaze with iron oxide on the surface, it appears the rust has worked its way through to the exterior from the interior.

Oil and tea can, 2009 porcelain with matt white glaze and banded iron oxide State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Peter Fogarty Design Fund, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2009 2009/0082.a-b

Ginger jar, 2010 porcelain with matt white glaze and banded iron oxide

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2012 2012/0026.a-b

Vase (Prospect #17), 2011 porcelain with matt white glaze and banded iron oxide

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2012 2012/0027 Š Kirsten Coelho 2009-2011

N I C K

M O U N T

Glass artist BORN: 1952 Adelaide,

South Australia

FIRE

WORKS:

Adelaide, South Australia

Mount has been a leading figure in the Australian studio glass movement for over 40 years. The term ‘studio glass’ is used to distinguish between unique items made by individual glassworkers and industrially produced glass made by teams working in factories.

Studio glass was born out of the development of smaller furnaces in the US in the 1970s and has been embraced for the way it frees the glassworker to give full reign to their creativity. Makers in Australia have used various techniques to produce objects that can be decorative or functional, convey a mood, or comment on social issues.

Mount enjoys the challenge of the degree of skill furnace work demands, where the final object is born from fire and given life through the breath of the artist. Mount’s aesthetic is a combination of traditional Venetian glass blowing methods, and the purity of Scandinavian design fused with the strong colours of American ‘funk’ craft.

Red plate, 1993 blown glass

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1993 1993/0356 © Nick Mount 1993

E U B E N A

N A M P I T J I N

Nampitjin grew up in the Great Sandy Desert before moving to Balgo in 1948. She was an esteemed law woman, who initially worked BORN: c1921 to preserve her culture by assisting in the production of a dictionary Tjinjadpa, of the Kukatja language and engaging with anthropologists in the

near Jupiter Well,

Western Australia 1950s. Nampitjin also kept her connection to Country alive through her art. She stated, “I like painting from my heart ... to keep my spirit DIED: 2013 strong.” Nampitjin’s paintings were distinguished by their vibrant

Wirrimanu (Balgo), colours and strong patterning. This is her first work in glass, and it

Western Australia depicts the place where Kinyu, the spirit dog, lives. The lines of colour LANGUAGE: Kukatja/Purtitjarra/ show the tali (sandhills) and the circular shape is the soak Midjul.

Painter

Kinyu, 2002 fused glass

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of Dr Ian and Sue Bernadt, 2018 2018/0031 © Eubena Nampitiin / Copyright Agency

FIRE

Wangkajungka/ Mantjilyjarra

B E T H A M Y AIR + FOUND

Jeweller and metalsmith BORN: 1976 Perth,

Western Australia WORKS:

Perth, Western Australia

L I N T O N Western Australian plants were the inspiration for these works by Linton. They are not directly illustrative of specific plants, but are the result of Linton’s close observation of, and emotional connection to, the flora and the landscape that surround her home on the Darling Scarp. The shape of the Banksia Grandis Brooch may have been found in nature, but in forming and anodising the titanium sheet from which it is made, life has been brought to the metal.

Similarly, the lines of grass tree leaves are the starting point for the Xanthorrhoea rings. Linton has drawn with the silver like a pencil, capturing space and energy within their elegantly curved forms. An underlying concern for Linton is the fact that while her jewellery may capture a moment in time, its connection to the natural world ties it to a continuum of growth, linking past, present and future.

Banksia Grandis Brooch, 2016 anodised titanium and sterling silver

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Peter Fogarty Design Fund, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation 2018 2018/0100

Xanthorrhoea ring #1, 2017 forged sterling silver

Xanthorrhoea ring #2, 2017 forged sterling silver

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0101

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0102

Xanthorrhoea ring #3, 2017 forged sterling silver

Xanthorrhoea ring #4, 2017 forged sterling silver

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0103

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0104 Š Bethamy Linton 2016-2017

A L I S T E R Jeweller and metalsmith BORN:

WORKS:

AIR

1987 Sabah, Malaysia

Perth, Western Australia

Y I A P Yiap is a designer whose work is characterised by strong, clean lines.

His jewellery is typical of a branch of Western Australian jewellery that is based on an open framework, an approach that produces items that are light to wear and suit our climate. This structural expression also sits well with Yiap’s design aesthetic, which favours geometric shapes. However, there is playfulness to be found in this seemingly rigid scaffold of containment. Yiap delights in tricking the eye, suspending forms within forms, so that each piece carries a memory inside it. He also designs for fashion, and the drama of the runway is translated into his jewellery, which Yiap believes should give a sense of personal theatre for the wearer.

Micromech: crystal cage, 2014 sterling silver, obsidian and black rhodium plate

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0107

Suspension: vertical, 2017 sterling silver with stainless steel cable

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0110

Suspension: horizontal, 2017 sterling silver with stainless steel cable

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0109

Suspension: floating forms, 2017 sterling silver

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: Fogarty Design Collection, 2018 2018/0108 Š Alister Yiap 2014-2017

J A M E S

W . R .

L I N T O N

Painter, jeweller and metalsmith Linton was a very influential figure in the Perth art world for nearly BORN:

1869 London, England

WATER

DIED: 1947 Perth,

Western Australia WORKED: Perth,

Western Australia

50 years. He was versatile as an artist, working across many media including painting, silversmithing and timber carving. As a young man in England he had been exposed to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, and this was the conceptual approach to making art that he applied both as an artist and teacher. The underlying principle of this movement was the belief in the superiority of handmade (as opposed to machine) objects, utilising simple decorative forms drawn from nature or the past. This tender, beautifully observed, sculpture – most likely of one of his own children – clearly reveals his affinity with his subject.

not titled [head of a baby], not dated bronze

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of the Estate of Betsey Linton, 2005 2005/0161

P I E R R E - A U G U S T E Painter BORN:

1841 Limoges, France

WORKED: France

Renoir painted many images of women, including contemporary scenes of them at leisure, and nudes. Late in life he turned to making sculpture, and it was the form of the naked female body that became his subject. Renoir’s paintings were typically impressionist; however, his sculptures come from a different reference point, that of classicism.

This bust of the Roman goddess of love was taken from a full-length sculpture, the Venus Victrix (Venus Victorious). Although ostensibly derived from antiquity, there is nothing mythical about this very contemporary Venus. Her pose has been appropriated from one of Renoir’s many bather paintings, and her downcast eyes permit the viewer to gaze on her unclothed body thereby transforming her into an object of sexual desire. Renoir’s sculptural output was the result of a remarkable partnership between the elderly painter, whose hands were crippled by arthritis, and Richard Guino, the young sculptor employed to assist him.

Tête de Venus [Head of Venus], 1915 bronze with black patina

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased with funds presented by Swan Portland Cement Ltd, 1980 1980/00S8

WATER

DIED: 1919

Cagnes-sur-mer, France

R E N O I R

A U G U S T E Sculptor BORN: 1840

Paris, France

WATER

DIED: 1917

Meudon, France

WORKED: France

R O D I N If Renoir’s sculpture is of the goddess of love, his near-contemporary Rodin gives us a very different mythical creature. Far from an inert, classical-inspired vision, this fauness is a part human, part animal figure that expresses a barely restrained sexual energy.

This sculpture is one of many study figures Rodin made for his monumental commission, The Gates of Hell, which was intended for a new museum in Paris. Rodin was one of the great sculptural innovators in the nineteenth century. He didn’t put his models into static poses when he worked with them, rather he was inspired by figures in motion and derived his final poses from observations made in the studio. This explains their dynamism and tension, which conveys Rodin’s belief that the body is also a vehicle for the physical expression of the soul.

La Faunesse à genoux [Kneeling fauness], c1880 bronze State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1963 1963/00S3

R A M S H A W

Jeweller and metalsmith BORN:

1939 Sunderland, England

DIED: 2018

London, England

WORKED: London,

England

At first glance these two necklaces seem to have been drawn from different aesthetic languages. Made less than a decade apart, one is tightly geometric while the other is loosely organic. One has parts that can be moved into position, while the other moves freely when worn. What unites them though is their maker’s intention to co-opt the wearer into the process of creatively bringing the jewellery to life.

Throughout her jewellery practice Ramshaw was interested in the movement of objects in space, and in seeking order in complexity.

The title of the Orbit neckpiece links the wearer to the space of the universe, where the movements of objects is clearly seen written on a large-scale. The Necklace of tears for Dora Maar is one of more than 60 items Ramshaw made inspired by Picasso’s paintings of important women in his life.

Orbit (neckpiece), 1988 nickel alloy inlaid with synthetic resin

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1990 1990/0309

Necklace of tears for Dora Maar, 1996 sterling silver with rock crystal and aquamarines State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1997 1997/0047.a-f

© Wendy Ramshaw 1988-1996

WATER + ANIMAL

W E N D Y

G I A M P A O L O Jeweller and metalsmith BORN: 1947

ANIMAL

Padua, Italy

WORKS: Italy

B A B E T T O

Babetto initially trained as an architect, but since the late 1960s has pursued a career as a jeweller, mostly working with gold. The gold he uses is prepared to his own alloy, which is milled into flat sheets before its surface is treated. Babetto’s design approach is marked by his use of traditional gold smithing techniques, which he combines with simple forms. Ideas are first tested in drawings, and he seeks forms that he says can become “jewels”. His use of elementary shapes such as cubes, squares, and circles are a direct reference to the classical architecture of the Italian Renaissance.

This process has resulted in elegant works that are characterised by geometric precision and clarity of form. Babetto refers to his works being empty but solid, which can be seen in this Ring where the open tube for the finger is balanced by the closed form that sits atop it like a highly machined stone.

Ring, 1989 18 carat yellow gold

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1990 1990/0305 © Giampaolo Babetto 1989

M I C H A E L Jeweller and metalsmith

WORKS:

London, England

The focus of Rowe’s work is an investigation into the formal qualities of the vessel or container. He has been concerned with how our understanding of objects is influenced by their environment, and conversely how objects change our perception of the space in which they are placed.

His work illustrates his experimental and exploratory approach to the object. He starts with the body of the vessel, which he considers to be the main form, and then adds secondary forms which facilitate the functioning of the vessel such as handles, lids or bases. This connection to functionality is important as Rowe resists his containers becoming purely decorative, sculptural pieces. Rowe starts with drawings, then makes models from card and metal, before the final work is fabricated from sheet metal. The tinned finish he applies adds toughness and makes the object bright without being overly reflective, which would detract from its mass.

Cylindrical container, 1985 brass with tinned finish

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1986 1986/0123 Š Michael Rowe 1985

ANIMAL

BORN: 1948

High Wycombe, England

R O W E

M A R I

F U N A K I

Jeweller and metalsmith BORN:

ANIMAL

1950 Matsue, Japan

DIED: 2010

Melbourne, Victoria

WORKED: Melbourne,

Victoria

Funaki was one of Australia’s most important and internationally recognised craft artists. Working with both jewellery and small-scale sculptural objects, Funaki’s approach was to refine ideas rather than constantly re-invent her practice.

Although superficially similar, these rings exhibit a different approach from that of Babetto. His ring is static, monumental, whereas Funaki’s are dynamic. They present us a moment in time, capturing a living thing in the process of movement – folding, unfurling, curling …

In all there is a strong connection with the natural world and Funaki acknowledged the importance of this in creating objects to stir the memory or trigger the imagination. People are essential in the realisation of Funaki’s work; not only for emotional but also physical engagement. These rings are made for the human body, they await the presence of someone to transform them through wearing them and bring about a union of the material and the natural and animal worlds.

Ring, 2006 18 carat white gold

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Peter Fogarty Design Fund 2006 2006/0029

Ring, 2006 20 carat yellow gold

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014 2014/0046

Ring, 2006 rhodium-plated 18 carat white gold

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014 2014/0047

Ring, 2006 rhodium-plated 18 carat white gold

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014 2014/0048 Š Mari Funaki 2006

H O L L Y

G R A C E

VEGETABLE

Glass artist BORN: 1969

Geraldton, Western Australia

WORKS:

Melbourne, Victoria

In her practice to date Grace has been inspired by the natural world.

Her earlier glass works were organic in form, taking their shapes and decorative elements from trees and leaves. She has written that, “human interaction with nature has always been a strong theme in my work” and that her tree and leaf forms “refer to clearing, construction and resurrection”. Those works were universal in outlook, in that they were inspired by Grace’s first-hand experience of Scandinavian as well as Australian nature. She currently makes works that engage directly with the unique qualities of the Australian landscape, and the history of human action on it. In Gulf Hut – Remnants both form (billy can) and imagery (bush hut) refer to the Australian vernacular design solution of ‘making do’, linking past to present and keeping an awareness of that tradition.

Gulf Hut – Remnants, 2017 blown glass with fired-on glass enamel paints and decals, sandblasted imagery, gilded gold leaf interiors and found metal handle State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 2018 2018/0064.1-3 © Holly Grace 2017

R O S I E

N A N Y U M A

Painter BORN: c1940

Stanmore Ranges, Western Australia

DIED: 2004 WORKED:

Wirrimanu (Balgo), Western Australia

LANGUAGE: Kukatja

Kumpultjirril, 2003 fused glass

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of Dr Ian and Sue Bernadt, 2018 2018/0032 © Rosie Nanyuma / Copyright Agency

MINERAL

Balgo is located at the meeting point of two deserts, and has brought together six language groups, each with their own traditions and ceremonies. It has a flourishing art centre, and the town’s cultural diversity has meant that a range of styles has emerged from the community. The artists paint their ancestral homelands, expressing their intimate knowledge of, and connection to, Country. In 2000 a glass studio was established at the art centre and many artists applied their distinctive use of bright colour to working with glass.

This work by Nanyuma depicts her grandmother’s Country to the far south of Balgo. It is a place with an important waterhole where people camped while they collected bush food.

L U C Y

Y U K E N B A R R I

Yukenbarri was a senior law woman with a deep knowledge of land and ceremony. The black shape at the centre of this image is the BORN: c1934 permanent water source Marpa, which is surrounded by land rich Winpurlpurla,

Great Sandy Desert, with bushfood including kantilli and pura (bush raisins and bush tomato). Marpa is in Yukenbarri’s grandmother’s Country, and

Western Australia she made many paintings of this place, which is important women’s DIED: 2003 Country in the southern Great Sandy Desert. Yukenbarri was noted

Wirrimanu (Balgo), for her innovative painting style, which involved the placing dots of

Western Australia pigment so close together that they appeared to merge, creating WORKED: Wirrimanu (Balgo), areas of intense colour. She referred to this as ‘kinti kinti’ (close

Western Australia close), and this painterly approach is evident in this glass work.

Painter

MINERAL

LANGUAGE: Kukatja

Marpa, 2001 fused glass

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of Dr Ian and Sue Bernadt, 2018 2018/0037 © Lucy Yukenbarri / Copyright Agency

J A M E S

L Y N C H

Contemporary artist working across performance, collaboration and film Melbourne, Victoria

WORKS: Melbourne,

Victoria

Other people’s dreams of me: we were running and running, 2004 pencil on paper transferred to digital video State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 2018 2018/0044 © James Lynch 2004

PAPER

BORN: 1974

This work belongs to a series by Lynch in which he appears in the dreams of friends and family. Lynch has worked as a performance artist, exploring the relationships between the work of art, the artist and audiences. His dream videos are an extension of this interest in the psychology of human behaviour. They feature Lynch as the main protagonist, but they aren’t self-portraits. Instead, we see an image of Lynch that has been filtered through the subconscious of the person whose dream the video purports to record. The final montage of pencil and felt-tip marker pen drawings, collaged with photographic stills, reinforces the often disjointed, frustrating nature of dreaming.

G A B R I E L L A & S I L V A N A Contemporary artists working across performance and film

PAPER

BORN: 1972 Stanthorpe, Queensland WORK:

Melbourne, Victoria

M A N G A N O M A N G A N O

The Mangano sisters describe their video-based works as “drawings in space”. They think of the camera as the paper, since that is the ‘surface’ which records the traces of the ‘marks’ made by their bodies moving through space.

In Sculpture Sequence we see one sister, who is dressed in black, set against a black background. In sharp contrast are several white objects made from card, which she holds. The movement of the artist’s body apparently animates this paper material, but is she in fact a passive being who is obliged to move her body in response to it? Her gestures reference traditional formal sculptural qualities such as line, shadow, and depth and force the viewer to think about the relationships between bodies, objects and space. We are challenged to reflect on the place of the human body and materials in the contemporary world where interactions increasingly happen in virtual space.

Sculpture Sequence, 2012 digital video

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2012 2012/0086 © Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano 2012

W I L L I A M

BORN: 1955 Johannesburg,

South Africa WORKS:

South Africa

The Procession series which these figures form part of were the first group of sculptural works made by Kentridge, who to that point had mostly made prints, drawings, and animated films, as well as stage designs and performance art. Living and working in South Africa has profoundly influenced Kentridge’s art, all of which at some level can be read as a commentary on the legacy of colonialism and the apartheid system. His overarching interest however is investigating what it is to be human – good, bad, victim, perpetrator …

The shapes in Procession are the result of the tearing up of sheets of black paper. This process created random shapes, but it is the artist’s intent that you see beyond the apparently accidental forms to recognise their inherent humanity. This stream of figures, weighed down by various burdens, referred directly to recent events in South Africa, but it also evokes global issues around displacement and migration.

Abstract figure 1,2,3 from Procession, 1999-2000 bronze State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 2000 2000/0482.1-3 © William Kentridge 1999-2000

SCISSORS

Artist, theatre designer and animator

K E N T R I D G E

J A C O B

E P S T E I N

Sculptor BORN: 1880

New York, United States

ROCK

DIED: 1959

London, England

WORKED:

London, England

Epstein undertook training in America and France before emigrating to England in 1905. As a young artist he had aligned himself with the avant-garde and he was to become known as one of the leading modernist sculptors of his day. His early works had a geometric, almost abstract approach to the subject, which challenged what he saw as the conservative nature of the English tradition of figurative sculpture. However, his experience in the First World War transformed his outlook, and his later works are more humancentred. His portrait sculptures were based in close observation of his sitters, who ranged from the famous to casual acquaintances.

He used highly modelled surfaces to bring life to his subject and convey their personality as well as record a physical likeness.

First portrait of Lydia, 1930 bronze

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1961 1961/00S4 Š The estate of Sir Jacob Epstein

I A N

F A I R W E A T H E R

Painter BORN: 1891

Perth, Scotland

Bribie Island, Queensland WORKED: Queensland

This small sculpture was moulded by Fairweather in 1946 and is the only sculpture he ever made. The textured surface retains the marks of the artist’s hands as he manipulated the clay into the desired shape. Bryans had it cast in bronze 40 years later, 12 years after the artist’s death. The inspiration for this work came from a drawing Fairweather had made in 1933 of a young Balinese woman.

By making the figure fold in upon itself, conveying a sense of the space contained within the form/figure, Fairweather has transformed the lines and brushstrokes of the two-dimensional drawing into a solid form.

Head, 1946 bronze

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of Lina Bryans, 1992 1992/0009 © Ian Fairweather / DACS. Copyright Agency, 2020

ROCK

DIED: 1974

For many years Fairweather was a nomadic artist, travelling and working across the globe. From 1945-1947 he lived in Melbourne with fellow artist Lina Bryans and was part of an artistic community promoting a modern approach to creativity.

I N G E

K I N G

Sculptor BORN: 1915

Berlin, Germany

ROCK

DIED: 2016

Melbourne, Victoria

WORKED:

Melbourne, Victoria

King made an extraordinary contribution to modern art in Australia across 70 years of practice, most particularly in the field of largescale, non-figurative sculpture. In 1959 King learnt to weld steel, and consequently much of her work throughout the 1960s was constructed of flat sections of steel welded together to create three-dimensional forms.

Although small, Norman keep clearly shows her expressive use of welding in making her sculptures at this time. She did not aim to create elegant works with near-invisible joins. Rather she deliberately let the metal bead along the weld joints and on the surface and edges of the steel, bringing texture to the surface, almost like a painter. The production of maquettes and smaller-scale sculptures was essential to King’s way of working as they enabled her to test ideas or forms that could then be expanded, all the way to the monumental scale required for the works she envisaged for cityscapes.

Wall sculpture, 1963 bronzed steel

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of the artist under the Commonwealth Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2015 2015/0074

Norman keep, maquette, 1963-1964 bronzed steel

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of the artist under the Commonwealth Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, 2015 2015/0075 Š Inge King 1963-1964

J E R E M Y

L E P I S T O

Glass artist BORN: 1974

Fort Belvoir, Virginia, United States

LOST

WORKS: Canberra,

Australian Capital Territory

This work is a meditation on dislocation. Lepisto moved to Australia from America in 2009, and the works he made soon after this are a very personal exploration of the emotional impact of leaving familiar surroundings for a new environment. The stack of crates in All the stories, embodies the experience of packing up a home or a life.

Inherent in that process are decisions about what is to be kept – and what let go. The simple construction of the crates belies the complexity of what might be contained within them. Lepisto’s use of architectural imagery refers to the lost American urban landscape that he felt defined him, but more generally he looks to the role of our everyday surroundings in shaping our understanding of self.

All the stories from the Crate series, 2010 kiln-formed, cold worked and assembled glass

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2011 2011/0044 © Jeremy Lepisto 2010

T 0 N Y

J O N E S

Sculptor

WORKS: Perth,

Western Australia

These two sculptures bring together casts of found items with imagery drawn from unrelated objects. In Untitled (bird on a wheel), Jones gives us an odd fusion of the animal and the mechanical as the bird, perched on a wheel like a circus performer on a monocycle, metamorphoses into a plane. As with the Surrealists before him, Jones conjures into being an unsettling image from his subconscious simply through the unexpected conjunction of items from our everyday world

Untitled (bird on wheel), 1980 bronze on marble base State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of Dr Rose Toussaint, 1994 1994/0200

Untitled (man with wing), 1982 bronze on marble base

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Gift of Dr Rose Toussaint, 1994 1994/0201 Š Tony Jones 1980-1982

FOUND

BORN: 1944 Adelaide,

South Australia

When Jones started to make small-scale sculptures in the late 1970s, casting in bronze was not commonly practised in Perth. What particularly excited Jones about bronze casting was the process of working through a traditional medium to achieve a new, as yet unknown, outcome. Jones started with wax casts of many of the elements of the sculptures, enjoying the fact that the malleability of wax enabled the smooth joining of the distinct parts into a new whole.

J O H N

N I X O N

Contemporary artist working across painting, assemblage, music and jewellery

FOUND

BORN: 1949 Sydney,

New South Wales WORKS: Melbourne,

Victoria

John Nixon is one of Australia’s leading abstract artists. Throughout his long career Nixon has taken key movements and moments from the history of 20th century art as the starting point for his own practice. These have included constructivism, minimalism and the use of the readymade, all of which share an interest in an investigation of the nature of representation and an exploration of materiality. He works across many media, and recently added the making of jewellery to his extensive practice, although he considers himself to be not a jeweller, but a wearer of jewellery and owner of a few pieces of personal significance.

His series of rings, like much of his broader practice, make use of readymade or ‘found’ parts which are brought together into simple structures. The circle of the ring is cut from commercially available industrial piping, while the ‘stones’ range from small rocks, pieces of broken glass or found bits of metal.

Standard ring, 2011-2012 steel

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014 2014/0057

Nut pendant, 2011-2012 steel

State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2015 2015/0019 Š John Nixon 2011-2012

ART ON THE MOVE

Website: www.artonthemove.art Facebook: /artonthemove.art Instagram: @artonthe_move AGWA

Website: www.artgallery.wa.gov.au Facebook: /ArtGalleryWA Instagram: @artgallerywa DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, SPORT AND CULTURAL INDUSTRIES

Website: https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au Facebook: /DeptLGSC /DLGSCarts Instagram: @deptlgsc

Design: Studio Papa ISBN: 978-9-6485263-2-2 This is an Art Gallery of WA and ART ON THE MOVE touring program developed as part of Freighting Ideas project.

This project has been made possible through the Regional Exhibition Touring Boost managed by the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries, supported by Royalties for Regions and delivered in partnership by ART ON THE MOVE and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

The Act-Belong-Commit Engagement Program is sponsored by Heathway promoting the Act-Belong-Commit message. www.freightingideas.com.au