Wonderland is an exhibition that draws on the many ideas and definitions associated with wonder– surprise, inspiration, curiosity, and a feeling of amazement caused by something beautiful, remarkable or unfamiliar.
Wonderland
When you hear ‘wonderland’ you think of Alice – you think of madness and absurdity and things that are never what they seem. You think of colours, whimsy and magic that is tempered by a sense of unsettling strangeness. Wonderland is an exhibition that draws on the many ideas and definitions associated with wonder– surprise, inspiration, curiosity, and a feeling of amazement caused by something beautiful, remarkable or unfamiliar. This exhibition is about the idea that in an increasingly dark world wonderful things can still happen. Exhibiting artists are Allyson Adeney, Anna Battersby, Susan Chen, Allegra Holmes, Kate Hughes, Ella Judd, Marguerite Lorraine, Laura Nolan and Kristi Pupo.
Wonderland
Allyson Adeney makes use of various mediums, including textiles, ceramics, glass and found objects to explore notions of everyday memory, nostalgia and relationships within both the physical and psychological environment. Her work won the People’s Choice Award at Rookwood’s ‘Hidden’ in 2014. Presently Adeney’s work is being shown in Hong Kong alongside other chosen Australian artists. Her collaborative work with JanGuy forms part of an international collection in Finland. Her work can also be found in private collections across Australia and the world.
Anna Battersby’s ceramics and sculptural installations are a mixture of abstraction, symbolism and materiality. She is interested in the entanglement of artist and material, and captures unique gestural moments within her works. She invites the viewer to contemplate ideas of fragility and ephemerality through these subtle material explorations. The relationship between material and process is illuminated and revealed by means of deep material engagement, inviting the viewer to contemplate the material, the poetic and the imaginative. Battersby explores the elemental as a sensuous connected realm, realized through material encounters in the medium of ceramic seen as a microcosm for the elemental.
Susan Chen creates both functional and sculptural artwork. Her art practice combines an interest in sociology and aspects of human psychology, in particular, the human experience within the current digital and online world. Chens work is experimental and data driven, challenging the perception of traditional ceramic making techniques. She incorporates the use of digital technology, including 3D ceramic printing, as a means of experimentation through curiosity whilst examining the changing narrative of contemporary ceramics. Chens artworks identify with contemporary architectural forms and elements. The use of architecture as a metaphor for the human body is a common theme.
Allegra Holmes’ artmaking practice centres on investigating and materializing concepts of pregnant and maternal embodiment, feminism, and intimacy. 2017 saw Holmes complete herBVA with First Class Honours, as well as the birth of her second child. She isa current Masters of Fine Art candidate at Sydney College of the Arts,furthering her research into the feminist politics of physiological mothering practices, ceramics and art making with two young children. Holmes is a published author, research assistant and will be a presenter at the 2019 Australian Motherhood Institute for Research and Community Involvement’s 9th Interdisciplinary Conference, Beyond Mothering Myths? Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation.
Kate Hughes is a multidisciplinary artist working in print, textile and photo media living and working on Gadigal land. Her work is delicate, feminine and technically refined. It explores the ties between identity and place enticing the viewer with detail, texture and intimacy. Her artistic practice is informed by her current work in cultural materials conservation and her history working in adult media. After completing her BFA she worked in adult media, leaving her with a lasting passion for sex worker rights and an appreciation of the body as a medium for self-expression. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Glover Prize, Heysen Landscape Art Prize, Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award.
Ella Judd believes in crafting unusual objects into wearable pieces – challenging ideas of the body, beauty and historical truth along the way. Ella is an emerging artist who recently graduated from Sydney College of Arts with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Maj. Jewellery and Object) in 2016 and has continued to grow her practice through group shows and commissions. For the Wonderland exhibition, Ella has created the ‘Make.Believe.’ series. Look closely at her creations and ask did these creatures ever exist? Or are they just make believe?
Marguerite Lorraine is a Sydney based mixed media artist. Lorraine depicts luscious romantic figures of the feminine form, using fabric, lighting and composition that could be found in a Renaissance painting. The photographs hold raw and honest insight into the darkness and vulnerability that flows under the beating heart of beauty. Her subjects invite you to look beyond the surface to the very soul of a woman - the spirit of a Wild Woman. Using photography and movement she captures the ambiguity and structure through the lens. The audience is confronted with their own reflection while sharpening their visual senses to see what lies beyond the black reflective resin. The work evokes the sublime in a nostalgic yet dark way. Lorraine deals with themes of grief, loss and love.
Laura Nolan works with the medium of hot glass in sculptural installations and expands to digital through photo media and video. Nolan’s practice incorporates a diverse range of disciplines expanding the field of sculpture. Nolan is motivated to create in response to current social,political, spiritual and environmental issues. Nolan explores space that exists between mind and matter as a platform for expression of the invisible connection between everything in the universe. At particular moments often around synchronistic events, we intuitively sense a deeper meaning to life. These unexplainable yet significant moments open our minds to broader capacities of comprehension. An almost childlike faith is rekindled, when cultivated the possibilities are endless, imaginatively we have entered Wonderland.
Kristi Pupo explores inner truths and earth bounds relationships through the process of her art making. Working with the ceramic medium she creates site-specific installations with handmade objects whilst performing rituals.
‘To see through her eyes’ associates with ‘the self’ and ‘the other’. Pupo explores ideas of animism with the supernatural to analyze universal semiotics. The rabbit appears to heal ancient wounds, by aligning with a collective consciousness. Pupo meditates on multidimensional forgiveness with the determination to unravel life’s greatest mysteries. This work is birthed from the underground and in-between planes of existence, referencing family bloodlines, evolution and a modern society. The ability to wear her work allows one to enter another state of consciousness.
Wonderland
When you hear ‘wonderland’ you think of Alice – you think of madness and absurdity and things that are never what they seem. You think of colours, whimsy and magic that is tempered by a sense of unsettling strangeness. Wonderland is an exhibition that draws on the many ideas and definitions associated with wonder– surprise, inspiration, curiosity, and a feeling of amazement caused by something beautiful, remarkable or unfamiliar. This exhibition is about the idea that in an increasingly dark world wonderful things can still happen. Exhibiting artists are Allyson Adeney, Anna Battersby, Susan Chen, Allegra Holmes, Kate Hughes, Ella Judd, Marguerite Lorraine, Laura Nolan and Kristi Pupo.
Wonderland
Allyson Adeney makes use of various mediums, including textiles, ceramics, glass and found objects to explore notions of everyday memory, nostalgia and relationships within both the physical and psychological environment. Her work won the People’s Choice Award at Rookwood’s ‘Hidden’ in 2014. Presently Adeney’s work is being shown in Hong Kong alongside other chosen Australian artists. Her collaborative work with JanGuy forms part of an international collection in Finland. Her work can also be found in private collections across Australia and the world.
Anna Battersby’s ceramics and sculptural installations are a mixture of abstraction, symbolism and materiality. She is interested in the entanglement of artist and material, and captures unique gestural moments within her works. She invites the viewer to contemplate ideas of fragility and ephemerality through these subtle material explorations. The relationship between material and process is illuminated and revealed by means of deep material engagement, inviting the viewer to contemplate the material, the poetic and the imaginative. Battersby explores the elemental as a sensuous connected realm, realized through material encounters in the medium of ceramic seen as a microcosm for the elemental.
Susan Chen creates both functional and sculptural artwork. Her art practice combines an interest in sociology and aspects of human psychology, in particular, the human experience within the current digital and online world. Chens work is experimental and data driven, challenging the perception of traditional ceramic making techniques. She incorporates the use of digital technology, including 3D ceramic printing, as a means of experimentation through curiosity whilst examining the changing narrative of contemporary ceramics. Chens artworks identify with contemporary architectural forms and elements. The use of architecture as a metaphor for the human body is a common theme.
Allegra Holmes’ artmaking practice centres on investigating and materializing concepts of pregnant and maternal embodiment, feminism, and intimacy. 2017 saw Holmes complete herBVA with First Class Honours, as well as the birth of her second child. She isa current Masters of Fine Art candidate at Sydney College of the Arts,furthering her research into the feminist politics of physiological mothering practices, ceramics and art making with two young children. Holmes is a published author, research assistant and will be a presenter at the 2019 Australian Motherhood Institute for Research and Community Involvement’s 9th Interdisciplinary Conference, Beyond Mothering Myths? Motherhood in an Age of Neoliberalism and Individualisation.
Kate Hughes is a multidisciplinary artist working in print, textile and photo media living and working on Gadigal land. Her work is delicate, feminine and technically refined. It explores the ties between identity and place enticing the viewer with detail, texture and intimacy. Her artistic practice is informed by her current work in cultural materials conservation and her history working in adult media. After completing her BFA she worked in adult media, leaving her with a lasting passion for sex worker rights and an appreciation of the body as a medium for self-expression. Her work has been shortlisted for numerous awards including the Glover Prize, Heysen Landscape Art Prize, Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award.
Ella Judd believes in crafting unusual objects into wearable pieces – challenging ideas of the body, beauty and historical truth along the way. Ella is an emerging artist who recently graduated from Sydney College of Arts with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Maj. Jewellery and Object) in 2016 and has continued to grow her practice through group shows and commissions. For the Wonderland exhibition, Ella has created the ‘Make.Believe.’ series. Look closely at her creations and ask did these creatures ever exist? Or are they just make believe?
Marguerite Lorraine is a Sydney based mixed media artist. Lorraine depicts luscious romantic figures of the feminine form, using fabric, lighting and composition that could be found in a Renaissance painting. The photographs hold raw and honest insight into the darkness and vulnerability that flows under the beating heart of beauty. Her subjects invite you to look beyond the surface to the very soul of a woman - the spirit of a Wild Woman. Using photography and movement she captures the ambiguity and structure through the lens. The audience is confronted with their own reflection while sharpening their visual senses to see what lies beyond the black reflective resin. The work evokes the sublime in a nostalgic yet dark way. Lorraine deals with themes of grief, loss and love.
Laura Nolan works with the medium of hot glass in sculptural installations and expands to digital through photo media and video. Nolan’s practice incorporates a diverse range of disciplines expanding the field of sculpture. Nolan is motivated to create in response to current social,political, spiritual and environmental issues. Nolan explores space that exists between mind and matter as a platform for expression of the invisible connection between everything in the universe. At particular moments often around synchronistic events, we intuitively sense a deeper meaning to life. These unexplainable yet significant moments open our minds to broader capacities of comprehension. An almost childlike faith is rekindled, when cultivated the possibilities are endless, imaginatively we have entered Wonderland.
Kristi Pupo explores inner truths and earth bounds relationships through the process of her art making. Working with the ceramic medium she creates site-specific installations with handmade objects whilst performing rituals.
‘To see through her eyes’ associates with ‘the self’ and ‘the other’. Pupo explores ideas of animism with the supernatural to analyze universal semiotics. The rabbit appears to heal ancient wounds, by aligning with a collective consciousness. Pupo meditates on multidimensional forgiveness with the determination to unravel life’s greatest mysteries. This work is birthed from the underground and in-between planes of existence, referencing family bloodlines, evolution and a modern society. The ability to wear her work allows one to enter another state of consciousness.
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