catherine bell
The Remains of the Day 28 June – 26 July 2014 Sutton Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
“...from her perception of the life of these remains she fashions an ephemeral sense of presence.�
What remains: landscapes of mourning In states of disintegration and decay, states that betray the presence of mortality, something is exposed in the material, opening it up for the critical gaze. Catherine Bell is an artist who inserts her work into this breach between desire and death, hope and mourning. As an artist, she asks, What remains? and from her perception of the life of these remains she fashions an ephemeral sense of presence. Motivated by her insight into mortality and mourning, and their natural accompaniment, melancholy, Bell reminds us that the spectre of death haunts our actions in this world, and, as Derrida suggests, that the body of work is a substitute for the living body, the ‘corpus for the corpse’. Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) came out of Bell’s lived experience of a place set aside for the dying. As artist-in-residence at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne, in 2012-13, Bell worked in the hospice, Caritas Christi, that is one branch of St Vincent’s. This hospice is an end-oflife care institution for those with incurable illnesses. Negotiating the sensitivities of the setting and its universal significance, Catherine Bell’s art addresses our fragile sense of mortality when it is confronted by death. This is symbolised in our culture by flowers, their ephemerality and delicacy an analogue for mortality. Bell extracted commemorative fragments in the form of the florist’s foam called ‘Oasis’, used to keep Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 14cm x W 8.5cm x D 8cm
flower arrangements fixed and hydrated. The concealed support for such flowers, gleaned from the exhausted bouquets that have fleetingly brightened the rooms of the dying, finds a second life in Bell’s carvings. She has re-purposed it to ask how the experience, inward and solitary, of absence and loss, can be imagined and communicated. In Catherine Bell’s hands, this material is asked to speak its history; its manipulation is a ritual acting-out of the artist’s anxieties, and through this manipulation it forms a memorial to the deceased. As an artist Bell takes on the task of honouring the truth that life transcends our grasp; she asks how what remains after death can be given a voice, and on whose behalf it can speak. Thus the work of Catherine Bell tells an allegory of mortality. She illustrates the ‘work of mourning’, that which Freud defines as a process of the mourner being in service to a long exercise of detachment from the beloved. An encounter with mourning, its materiality imbued with the numinous, inhabits these artefacts. The work of Catherine Bell has repeatedly dealt, in subtle and compelling ways, with death and mourning. In Snow Baby (2003) she devised a ritual in sympathy with the tragic devastation of maternal hope. A lump of snow, compacted in the shape of the gravid abdomen, then thawed, formed an allegorical counterpart for the stillborn child of a friend. In Felt is the Past Tense of Feel (2006) she acted out a cathartic private ritual honouring Catherine Bell, Caritas Christi Bouquet (a)bove and (b)elow (2012-13) Installation detail
her father, who died in 2003. Wearing a suit of protective pink felt, which in turn encased her father’s formal suit, and sucking and spitting the salty, bitter ink of squid as both erasure and camouflage, she gave witness to grief. In both works ritual was used to frame and transform a menacing encounter with mortality. Bell is audacious in the face of this mortal terror, death. The cult of mourning however can slip into pathology. Freud identified this as melancholy or depression. The mourner and melancholic both begin by denying their loss and are unwilling to recognize it. Yet mourning is resolved when the mourner recognizes the call of reality, to let go of the beloved and again give freedom to desire. Successful mourning comes about at the point where this detachment enables the mourner to live again. To determine the destiny of worldly effects is a significant part of this milestone, and one that Freud gave little attention to. This procedure and its attendant rituals is key to Bell’s process. The management of the worldly goods that signify the departed has a powerful part to play in the long process of the work of mourning. To the wounded psyche these material residues stand in for the lost object. The memorial cenotaph, the decorated grave and the roadside shrine all act out the materiality of mourning. Freud conceives the structure of this melancholic response as an antithesis to the basic wellbeing of the ego, the survival of which is put at risk. One can mourn many things, not only a person. The Caritas Christi hospice was founded by the nuns of The Sisters of Charity, an order whose members first came from Ireland to Australia in the nineteenth Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 14cm x W 8cm x D 8cm
century. They are a socially committed order whose mission is among the suffering and the disenfranchised, in accordance with their vocation of social engagement. Mourning for one’s land is one of the most poignant acts of commemoration, as both the refugee and the emigrant know all too well. The form of the carvings alludes to the story of the migration and exile of the Sisters whose calling it is to care for the dying. Ireland is a land singularly inscribed with tropes of loss and longing. Caritas Christi, a place for the dying, springs from the work of nuns dying far from home, migrating from Ireland to be buried in Tasmania, where their nineteenth-century graves still exist. Bell encodes a remembered landscape in these carvings. The green material of Oasis is mimetic of the swelling, rolling green hills of Ireland, not as they are, but as they are treasured and imagined. They are objects that yearn for their model, a land far away in both time and space.
Catherine Bell, Crematorium Vessel (2012-13) H 7.5cm x W 4cm x D 3.5cm Installation detail. “The Gathering� 2013. The Substation, Melbourne
In referencing this mythologised landscape the carvings manipulate scale. In the game of scale the intimate presence of a carving stands in for the spacious presence of the land. Miniaturization condenses the world in order to suggest new readings of topography and to propose how it expresses states of interiority. Viewed from the masterly position of the spectator, the carvings become an emblematic stage for the presence of secret life and secret histories. The vision also delves beneath the surface to imagine the earth as rooted in place, the carvings anchored to the depth of geological time through their wedge-shaped bases. Like archaeological relics they are protected and entombed in their vitrines. Some are assembled to make a panorama over which the eye can meander through a space of reverie.
Embedded in these objects is an idea of sacred geography whose numinous values inhere in spaces marked by patterns of human movement. These values stir humans to pilgrimage, a journey out of everyday space towards the space of spiritual insight, identified with experiences of penance or transcendence. The Irish have encoded these paths and patterns in their land over millennia, where pagan sacred places were incised into the landscape as burial mounds, standing stones or local shrines. Many of the Irish pre-Christian female divinities are associated with the land; some were originally territorial goddesses whose names are encrypted in the landscape and their metaphorically feminine aspect. These were subsumed by Christian hegemony from the fifth century. The first Sisters of Charity inherited this richly inscribed sacred geography. To re-imagine their land gives the nuns a ceremonial repatriation in the sculptures. The carvings not only connect to dying individuals but also to the idea of dying in a foreign place, as each inpatient at Caritas Christi is perforce dying in a foreign place, if not physically, then psychically very far from home. In responding to this complex history of migration, the carvings recall the contours of Ireland, always greener in the imagination, and anticipate the mysteries of the country from whose bourn no traveller returns. Bell’s stylized landscape recalls the miniaturized island that is the site of the final scene of Solaris (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972) to which the astronaut-explorer has returned. The viewer is shown that this island is floating on the sea of memories, and the traveller is trapped forever in the desire for home. Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 9cm x W 9.5cm x D 7.5cm
The most poignant of material remains is, of course, the body itself. A corpse expresses its radical otherness to the living body; it is a ponderous physical presence that, in its absence of vitality, is psychically baffling. It must be disposed of according to custom and culture, but whether to align it to the element of fire, by cremation, or of earth, with burial, is a culturally weighty decision. Bell aligns mourning with both elements: earth in the Mountains of Mourne and fire in the Crematorium Vessels. These miniature urns, also carved from Oasis, fragile as an archaeological relic, are poised to receive the ashes of the deceased. As miniaturised vases they continue to play the game of scale. They replace the interior space of the hospital flower vase with a newly-created exteriority, so that, in an infinite regress, we can imagine them containing yet another block of Oasis, that could be used in the manufacture of yet more miniature vessels and landscapes. A hollow vessel can also contain other materials, condensed and powerful in both physical and psychological senses: flowers, of course, but also the oil of extreme unction, or embalming fluid, or even the floating dust that is the detritus of every body, that same dust that binds together the living and the dead with every breath of air. The use of Oasis as a sculptural medium is not its end; it has further stories to tell. The carvings are accompanied by series of prints Caritas Christi Bouquet (a)bove and (b)elow (2012-13). Bell used Oasis as a printing matrix, inking the top
Catherine Bell, Caritas Christi Bouquet (a)bove and (b)elow (2012-13) W 27.7cm x H 19cm Paired prints taken from top and bottom surfaces of reclaimed Oasis foam, ink on paper, edition of 3 pairs (59 pairs in each edition)
surface and pressing it to paper to make a print; each of these is paired with a second print from the bottom surface. Their pairings reiterate the idea of repetition and ritual that ties this body of work together. Suspended and defenceless, each print appears as if crucified, framing in pairs the iconic mountain from whose materiality presence the print has sprung. Each print resembles a slab of weathered stone such as a grave marker or abraded runic inscription. These symbolic markers of the place where the mortal body rests link landscape and body for eternity. The prints evoke the various representations of disease that make up an image economy of the hospital: the scans, x-rays, and pathology slides that pronounce with finality on our mortality. Each print records the random trauma to which the reclaimed substrate is a memorial: like the body, its lacerations and scars give a forensic account of its injuries. Thus Catherine Bell teases utterance from disregarded materials, and enables them to give voice to the departed and to the act of bearing witness. Caroline DurrĂŠ June 2014 Dr Caroline DurrĂŠ is a lecturer in the Faculty of Art Design and Architecture, Monash University
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-13) Installation view. “The Gathering� 2013, The Substation, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-13) Installation view. “Artecycle: The Environmental Art Award� 2013, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, Caritas Christi Bouquet (a)bove and (b)elow (2012-13) H 27.7cm x W 19cm Paired prints taken from top and bottom surfaces of reclaimed Oasis foam, ink on paper, edition of 3 pairs (59 pairs in each edition)
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-13) Installation view. “Artecycle: The Environmental Art Award� 2013, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-13) Installation view. “Artecycle: The Environmental Art Award� 2013, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, Caritas Christi Bouquet (a)bove and (b)elow (2012-13) W 18.5cm x H 19cm Paired prints taken from top and bottom surfaces of reclaimed Oasis foam, ink on paper, edition of 3 pairs (59 pairs in each edition)
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-13) Installation view. “Artecycle: The Environmental Art Award� 2013, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 13cm x W 10.5cm x D 7.5cm
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 16 x W 7.5cm x D 8cm
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 18cm x W 14cm x D 11cm
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 15cm x W 11.5cm x D 10cm
“Bell encodes a remembered landscape in these carvings... they become an emblematic stage for the presence of secret life and secret histories.�
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 14cm x W 11cm x D 9.5cm Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 12cm x W 7.5cm x D 7.5cm
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 11cm x W 8.5cm x D 9.5cm
Catherine Bell, Mountains of Mourne (2012-14) H 13.5cm x W 11cm x D 12cm
Catherine Bell, Crematorium Vessel (2012-13) H 5cm x W 6cm x D 4cm
Catherine Bell, Crematorium Vessel (2012-13) H 7cm x W 4cm x D 4cm
Catherine Bell, Crematorium Vessel (2012-13) H 4.5cm x W 3.5cm x D 2cm
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day” 2014 Installation view. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day� 2014 Installation detail. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day” 2014 Installation view. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day� 2014 Installation detail. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day� 2014 Installation detail. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day� 2014 Installation detail. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
Catherine BELL Studies 2010-11 Graduate Certificate, Teaching in Higher Education, Australian Catholic University, VIC 2003-2007 Doctorate of Philosophy (Fine Art), Monash University, Caulfield, Melbourne 2002 Course De Civilisation Francaise De La Sorbonne, Paris, France 2000-2001 Recognised Studentship, Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford University, UK 1996-1997 Masters of Fine Art, RMIT University, Melbourne 1990-1992 Bachelor of Visual Arts, (Sculpture), Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane 1987-1989 Bachelor of Arts, (Art History /English Lit.), University of Queensland, Brisbane
Solo Exhibitions 2014 2013 2012 2011 2007 2006 2005 2001 1997 1996 1995 1994 1993 1992
The Remains of the Day, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne The Gathering, Substation, Melbourne This little piggy…fades to pink, Art Gallery of Ballarat, Melbourne Mum’s the Word, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Waste not Want not, Death Be Kind, Melbourne Love and Other Bruises, Monash Faculty Gallery, Melbourne Are you a man or a mouse mat? Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Felt is the Past Tense of Feel, Galapagas Art Space, Brooklyn, New York, USA Felt is the Past Tense of Feel, Linden – Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne Rain Cheque, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Harvest, Hooked, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane Head Over Eels, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane Cesspool & To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne With Friends Like These Who Needs Enemas, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane Coitus Interruptus, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Break and Enter, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane No Frills, The Royal Institute of Architects, Brisbane
Selected Group Exhibitions 2014 New Photography from the Footpath, Monash Gallery of Art, Melbourne Knowing Me Knowing You, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne The ‘F’ Word, Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, VIC Found, Magdalene Laundries, Abbottsford Convent Melbourne 2013 Backflip: Feminism and humour in contemporary art, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne Artecylce: The Environmental Art Award, Incinerator Gallery, Melbourne 2011 The Rest is Silence, Death Be Kind Gallery, Melbourne The Animal Gaze, Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery, Sheffield Seminário Internacional Arte e Natureza, Matilha Cultural, Sao Paulo, Brazil
What’s yours is mine, Linden - Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne Evidence of Absence, Death Be Kind Gallery, Melbourne Selectively Revealed, an international touring exhibition presented by Experimenta Media Arts & Asialink: Korea: 26 October–11 December 2011-Aram Art Gallery, Seoul Taiwan: 11 February – 13 May 2012 - National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei Thailand: 4 June – 21 July 2012 – Chulalongkorn University Art Space, Bangkok 2010 Portrait Exchange, Arts Project Australia, Melbourne Pulp, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Trouble Set Me Free, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne The Memorial, Death Be Kind, Melbourne 2009 Tier Perspeciven (Animal Perspectives), Georg-Kolbe Museum, Berlin Tier – Werden Mensch – Werden (Becoming Animal – Becoming Human), NGBK (Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst), Berlin BB3: gender-biology-society, Gallery Verkligheten, Umeå, Sweden Love Bites, Plimsoll Gallery, Hobart On the Line, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne Persuasion Equation, Linden – Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne Testing Ground, fortyfivedownstairs Gallery, Melbourne 2008–9 The Animal Gaze, touring exhibition, Unit 2 Gallery and Metropolitan Works, London; Centre of Contemporary Art, Exeter; and Plymouth City Museum and Gallery, Plymouth True crime - murder and misdemeanour in Australian art, Geelong Gallery, Victoria 2008 The Letter Show, George Paton Gallery, Union House, University of Melbourne, VIC The Cancer Council Victoria Art Award 2008, 15 W Gallery, Melbourne; Cube 37 Art Gallery; Frankston Art Centre; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery; & Warrnambool Art Gallery in praise of blandness, Faculty Gallery Monash Art & Design, Melbourne LOOP 08, Video Art Festival, Hotel California Ramblas de Barcelona, Spain Womenfolk: songs from the valley below, (Live performance collaboration with Martha McDonald), Out of Bounds, conference, Monash University, Melbourne 2007 Epiphanies, Victoria Park Gallery, Melbourne an edge meets an edge, Spectrum Project Space, Edith Cowen University, Perth Felt is the Past Tense of Feel, Fashion Biennale, Amsterdam 2006 A4 Reunion Show, West Space, Melbourne Alot of Love Goin’ Around, R.M.I.T University, Project Space, Melbourne Army Brats, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne 2005 The Raw and the Cooked, Blindside, Melbourne Truth Universally Acknowledged, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne Suck: voices from the interior, Geelong Gallery, & Ballarat Fine Art Gallery 2004 Suck: voices from the interior, Old Arts Building, University of Melbourne, & Maroondah Art Gallery Digital and Design Biennale, Melbourne Museum, Melbourne
2003 Drama is Conflict, Linden- Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne Drawing 2003, Faculty of Art & Design, Monash Gallery, Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne On View, Art & Design, Monash Gallery, Monash University, Caulfield Campus, Melbourne 2001 Artist x 3, The Gallery, Shepherds Market, Mayfair, London, UK The Norrie, Slessor, Bell, Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford, UK Ready, Steady, Go, Ipswich Regional Gallery, Ipswich, Queensland 1997 Then and Now, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane 1996 Strata, MFA, Graduate Show, RMIT, Storey Hall, Melbourne Reference Points IV, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide 1995 Logan City Art Prize, Logan City Art Gallery, Ipswich, Queensland Small Monuments, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Australia Felix, Benalla Easter Arts Festival, Benalla, Victoria 1994 Christmas Show, Bellas Gallery, Brisbane Group Women Drawing Show, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Windows, Metro Arts Gallery, Brisbane The 1994 Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award, Grafton Regional Gallery, N.S.W Six Artists from Bellas Gallery, Umbrella Studios, Townsville, Queensland 1993 21600 each 24 hours, Drawing Show, Canberra Boardroom, Travelodge Political Bedrooms, Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Fearless/Furchtlos, Forum Kunstund Schule, Gutersloh, Germany & Artestudio, Berganso, Italy 1992 Graduate Show, School of Arts Building, Brisbane Sextet, University of Western Nepean Campus, Sydney Epoch, Space Plentitude, Brisbane
Collections Australian National Gallery, Canberra Grafton Regional Gallery, Grafton, New South Wales Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Monash University, Melbourne St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne
Curated Exhibition 2011 What’s Yours Is Mine, (with Jan Duffy Program Director Linden) Linden – Centre for Contemporary Arts, Melbourne 2010 Trouble Set Me Free, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne 2007 Epiphanies, Victoria Park Gallery, Melbourne 2006 Army Brats, Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne 2005 The Raw and the Cooked, Blindside, Melbourne
Selected Bibliography Aamalia, Jordana ‘Mad, Bad Mothers and the Deviant Event: Catherine Bell and Maternal Instinct’, n.paradoxa International Feminist Art Journal, volume 22, July 2008, pp.69-75 Backhouse, Megan ‘box office, galleries’, The Age Melbourne Magazine, Issue 30, April 2007, p.99 ‘Catherine Bell’, The Age Melbourne Magazine, March 2007, p.99 ‘Art around the Galleries’, The Age, A2 Guide, Dec 9th 2006, p.10 ‘Art around the Galleries’, The Age, November 26th 2005, p.23 ‘Around the Galleries’, The Age A2, May 7th 2005, p.8 Baker, Steve ‘Artist/Animal’, Minnesota: USA, 2013. pp. 119-39, 199, 209, 215 Betterton, Rosemary ‘Maternal Bodies in the Visual Arts’, Manchester Press: UK, 2014, p.14, 116, 133-7, Plate 7 Brasch, Nicholas Australian’s Young Achievers in the Arts, Heinemann Library Harcourt Education, 2006 Brown, Scott J. 1996 Adelaide Biennial of Australia Art, exhibition catalogue, Adelaide, pp.88-89 Crawford, Ashley ‘Around the Galleries’, The Age A2 Culture and Life, Nov 8th 2008, p.11 Cawthorne, Zelda ‘The Truth is out there’, Herald Sun, August 17th 2005, p.62 Coates, Rebecca Truth universally acknowledged, exhibition catalogue, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 2005, p.12 Cooke, Dewi ‘When art imitates life...and death’, The Age, May 2, 2013, p.14 Cotter, Julie ‘Trouble Set Me Free’, Eyeline, Issue 72, 2010, p.91 Gertsakis, Elizabeth ‘Persuasion Equation’, Art and Australia, vol. 47, Summer, 2009, p.331 GlobeEjournal http://www.arts.Monash.edu.au/visarts/globe/issue6/catbell.hml Harvey, Nicola ‘The Raw and the Cooked’, un Magazine, Issue 7, Autumn, 2006, p.48-51 Hansen, David ‘Sucker for punishment’, Sightlines Critical Guide, The Age, Dec 1st 2006, p.15 Healy, Guy ‘Works of new masters’, The Australian, December 11th 1996, p.25 Hutchings, Patrick ‘Catherine Bell: Domestic Cross Currencies’, Australian Art Collector, Issue 32, April-June 2005, p.198 Johnson, Frances ‘A head for crime’, Sightlines Galleries, The Age, Nov 28th 2008, p.21 Kissane, Karen ‘Drawing out notions of evil’, The Age A2 Culture and Life, Nov 8th 2008, pp.17-18 Marsh, Anne ‘Performance, ritual, document’, Macmillan: Australia, 2014 p 188-9, 194 Martin Chew, Louise ‘Exhibitions’, The Australian, June 20th 1997, p.31 Miles, Melissa ‘Catherine Bell: cooking up crimes and maternal misdemeanors’, Eyeline, Issue 65, Summer, 2007–2008, pp.46-48 Moore, Ross ‘Grief as Methodology’, Sightlines Critical Guide, The Age, Dec 7th 2007, p.15 ‘This little piggy’, Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Issue 12, Spring, 2010 pp. 69-77: www.antennae.org.uk/ ‘Trouble Set Me Free’, exhibition catalogue, VCA Margaret Lawrence Gallery, 2010 Morrell, Tim ‘Hook, Line, Sinker’, Eyeline, Issue 48, Spring, 2002, pp.14-17
Needham, Clare ‘Selectively Revealed’ exhibition cat., Asialink & Experimenta, Melbourne 2011 pp 6, 10-11 Nelson, Robert ‘Uneasy portrayal of a nanny state’, The Age, December 2011, p.19 ‘So now it’s Master Curator’, The Age, August 26 2009, p.20 ‘The Spirit of Secular Art: A history of the sacramental roots of contemporary artistic values’, October 2007: www.epress.monash.edu/ssa ‘Persian mats for a mouse who protests but hasn’t got a prayer’, The Age, April 25th 2007, p.19 ‘Black is back and grief tastes like ink’, The Age, Nov 29th 2006, p.22 ‘Shifts of pride and perspective’, The Age, Sept. 21st 2005, p.18 ‘Feral fetishes to the fore’, The Age A2, May 21st 2003, p. 11 Petelin, George Brisbane Art, Courier Mail, 1995 ‘Art in Brisbane’, The Australian, Aug 20th 1993, p.8 Rainbird, Sarah (ed.) Harmonic Tremors: Aesthetic Interventions in the Public Sphere, Gasworks Arts Park: Victoria, 2009, pp. 27, 94, 95 Rainforth, Dylan ‘On the Line’, Eyeline, Issue 69, 2009, pp.80-81 Renaut, Andrew “In Conversation with Catherine Bell”, 50 Lux Issue #6, May 2014 http://issuu.com/50lux/docs/issue_6_2014_150_issuu Ruinard, Elizabeth ‘Perspecta’, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1993, pp.6, 7, 114 Smith, Sue ‘Low budget art dominates display’, Courier Mail, June 1st 1996, p.15 Sierra-Hughes, Marie Fresh Perspectives, Herald Sun, November 16th 1994 Stephens, Andrew ‘Finding faith in our secular rituals’, The Age A3 Guide, Aug 16th 2008, p.14 ‘The art of trauma’, The Age, A3 guide, Jan 12th 2008, pp.17-18 Sullivan, Lisa True Crime: Murder and Misdemeanor in Australian Art, exhibition catalogue, Geelong Gallery, Victoria, 2008 Vivian, Helen (ed.) When you think about art: The Ewing and George Patton Galleries 1974 – 2008, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2008 Ward, Peter ‘On-the-edge Biennial for an age of anxiety’, Australian, March 5th 1996 State of the Art, Issue 15, Feb-May 1996, p.27
Residencies 2012-13 St Vincent’s Hospital Caritas Christi Hospice Artist in Residence Program 2010 Australia Council for the Arts, Visual Arts Board Greene Street Studio/Residency, Soho, New York 2000-01 Visiting Artist, Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford, UK 1996 Studio 18, Residential Studio, 200 Gertrude Street, Melbourne 1994 Melville Haysom Residency, Queensland Art Gallery
Awards/Grants 2013 Creative Partnership Australia Award - Good Practice Recognition 2013 ACU Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning 2012 ACU Good Practice in Assessment Prize Early Career Researcher Award, Australian Catholic University 2011 Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award 2010 ACU Research Grant (Present conference paper in Toronto) 2009 ACU International Travel Grant (Presenting conference paper at NGBK Symposium, Berlin) 2008 Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal for Excellence in Doctoral Thesis, Monash University Victorian Cancer Council Art Award – Outstanding Visual Arts Entry ACU International Travel Grant (Present conference paper at King’s College London) 2007 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, Monash University, Caulfield Campus Monash Travel Grant (Present conference paper in New York) 2006 Arts Victoria, Creation Grant, Group Exhibition – Army Brats Monash Publication Grant (Army Brats Catalogue) 2005 City of Melbourne, Arts Grant, Group Exhibition – Army Brats Monash Publication Grant (Raw and the Cooked Catalogue) 2003-06 Australian Postgraduate Award Scholarship 1996 Professional Development Grant, Arts Queensland 1994 Melville Haysom Scholarship, Queensland Art Gallery
Dr Catherine Bell is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Arts at the Australian Catholic University (VIC), National Course Director of the Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design degree and ACU Gallery Director. Her research in art and health complements her art practice that forefronts art on the margins, art activism, community engagement and feminist perspectives.
Acknowledgements The Remains of the Day 28 June - 26 July 2014 Sutton Gallery 254 Brunswick Street Fitzroy Vic, 3065 Australia http://www.suttongallery.com.au The artist would like to thank Dr Irene Sutton, Liz McDowell, Kati Rule, Kathryne Genevieve Honey, Cherie Scweitzer, Andrew Curtis, Dr Caroline Durré, Sunil Maharajan, Monique Silk, Andrew McLeod, Archibald Bell-McLeod, Matthew Johnson and Helga Groves. The Remains of the Day was supported by St Vincent’s Hospital Artist in Residence Program and funded by an ACU Faculty Early Career Researcher Award 2012 and ACU Teaching Citation Award 2013. Catalogue Essay: Dr Caroline Durré Photography: Andrew Curtis Catalogue Design: Sunil Maharjan Catalogue published by Impact Digital June 2014 Edition: 250 ISBN 978-1-922097-26-2 Image copyright Dr Catherine Bell Text copyright Dr Caroline Durré - no material, whether written or photographic, may be reproduced without written permission. catherine.bell@acu.edu.au Sponsors:
Catherine Bell, “Remains of the Day” 2014 Installation detail. Sutton Gallery, Melbourne