HEATHER SHIMMEN Time warps 21 February - 12 March 2017 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
HEATHER SHIMMEN Time warps
Tuesday 21 February 2017 6pm to 8pm 28 Derby street Collingwood ViC 3066 Artist Talk: 4pm Saturday 4 March 2017 Current until sunday 12 March 2017 Open 7 days 10am to 6pm t 03 9417 2422 melbourne@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au
Front: Mutineer (detail) 2016 linocut and monoprint on paper, with variation 112 x 77 cm edition 25 top: Bush baby - Mitchell’s hopping mouse #2 2016 assemblage with felt, aluminium, embossing, lithograph and linocut 29 x 33 cm uNiQue Middle: Bush baby - Phascogale #1 2016 assemblage with felt, aluminium, embossing, lithograph and linocut 33 x 47 cm uNiQue right: Bush baby - Phascogale #2 2016 assemblage with felt, aluminium, embossing, lithograph and linocut 37 x 36 cm uNiQue Photography: angus Gunn
Coo-ee 2016 linocut and ink on paper, with variation 140 x 112 cm edition 25
M navigates 2015 linocut and organza on paper 112 x 77 cm edition 25
SOS 2015 linocut and organza on paper 112 x 72 cm edition 25
Maelstrom 2016 linocut on paper 112 x 77 cm edition 30
HEATHER SHIMMEN Heather shimmen’s art practice has evolved through many life experiences and supported by her Fine arts degree from rMit gained in 1978. Born in Melbourne, Heather has travelled widely and exhibited in most major cities in australia. she has been awarded Victorian arts Board grants in 1983 and 1989, Print Council of australia print prizes in 1983, 1991 and 2000 and the silk Cut award for linocut Prints in 1998. she has taught at several institutions including her alumni rMit. Her work is held by National Gallery of australia, Canberra; art Gallery of south australia, adelaide; Queensland art Gallery, Brisbane; Queen Victoria Museum and art Gallery, Hobart; australian War Memorial, Canberra; artbank, sydney; state library of Victoria, Melbourne and several regional and university collections. Heather has always held a passion for wildlife and in particular insects, which became the subject of much of her earlier work. Her short-sightedness along with spending time in Papua New Guinea as a young person are also deeply influential in her psyche. A close optical range and proximity to the ground as a child found Heather concentrating on the characteristics of insect life at close call and perhaps this attention to detail on the ground has served her well in her expertise in preparing linocuts. in more recent times, Heather’s heightened awareness of and proactive involvement in environmental issues, has led her to produce work themed around the australian native marsupials under threat, making low relief sculptures/prints on felt from etching blankets, linocut and embossed and printed aluminium. Her Bush babies works are examples of this medium. Heather’s exposure to indigenous issues and in particular the plight of women, story telling and mythical evolution has come from her extensive travel within australia to deserts, to forests and waterways, and to aboriginal art sites. Within this context Heather developed a theme of the female form to which she designated the name ‘Matilda’ metaphorically perhaps relating to a first nation person. ‘Matilda’ has emerged in different contexts in her artwork. some even, in response to racism,
questioning where australia is heading? Other works from the ‘Matilda’ theme come from her interest in story telling, and old yarns listened to from the area where Heather has her studio; a somewhat remote coastal finger of exquisite wilderness on the south east of the Victorian coastline. in her large work Swamp lady (a linocut and organza on paper) Heather references a fable of two purportedly aristocratic women rising from their flooded Gippsland farm clinging to furniture floating from the sunken ‘mansion’, including an unknown twist of fate left for the imagination as to the curious ending of their lives. this work holds deeper meaning than that of an interesting story however, and Heather uses these stories to open up dialogue about women’s issues at large, including perhaps, the demise of independent, educated women or indeed the falsities of how women are potentially portrayed. Heather’s continued interest in things both contemporary and historical conjoin her ideas for her to produce imaginative and interpretative images within her genre of printmaking, which allow the viewer to enter into her magical world whilst being confronted with the realities of environmental and social issues in her poignant representations of such. Not only that, but in many of Heather’s works she imbues a subtle humour. Accordingly, Heather’s expressionistic and figurative printmaking includes a wide imagination, not only in subject matter but in her use of materials where she has used retrieved old, much used etching blankets from various printmaking departments aligned to the serendipity of the accidental mark in her work. Her work brings the viewer great pleasure. Mary Baker Writer - Curator - Designer B.sc (arch), B.arch, GradDipVisart, Ma (art History) December 2016
Swamp lady 2008-16 linocut and organza on paper 191 x 112 cm edition 15
HEATHER SHIMMEN
Lost 4 2016 linocut on felt, with variation 72 x 65 cm edition 25
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