Mother Complex
Impression; First Site RMIT Union Gallery 344 Swanston st. Melbourne November 8 - November 17, 2007
New Releases pigmentGallery 29 January - 14 February 2009 Michael Staniak, Kristina Sundstrom, Amelia Lackmann, Carmel Seymour, Emily Taylor, Ron Rydz, Lilly Dusting, Samantha Harris, Sarah Deed, Andrew Keall
Brunswick Art Space 2009 Brunswick Street Gallery 2009
Read/Read 2008  Read/Read Artist Book Installation (SOLD) Artspaces Gallery 360 Swanston Street, Melbourne Read/Read; all objects have an energy, they have a presence, a memory and a history all of their own. It is this energy that motivates my art practice. I am interested in subverting and re-working the imagery held in found objects thus giving them new histories, allowing them to be read in different ways.
(sub)Missive 2009 (sub)Missive is the culmination of a mail art project in which artists from the UK, Europe, US, Canada and Australia each collaborated with an artist partner to create a new book work. Using the social networking forum as a platform for collaboration, artists investigated the dissemination of ideas with particular reference to (mis)communication and power relations. Taking the hierarchical construct as a brief, each participant devised a set of instructions ranging from the single word to the diagrammatic and distributed them for their collaborative partner to make work from. The results of this experiment were displayed as part of the 12th International Contemporary Artists Book Fair from Friday 6th till Wednesday 18th March 2009 @ Corridor Gallery, School Of Design, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT.
Dia de los Muertos 2007 “Just think, if people lived forever How crowded the world will be. Birthday cakes would have thousands of candles, People would have to live in the sea.” Audrey Harris Why did he Die? Lerner, Minneapolis 1965 Dia de los Muteros (the day of the dead) can be traced to many Mesoamerican traditions and is dedicated to children and the dead. It is not a morbid occasion but a festive time when families welcome their dead back into their homes. This festive interaction with both the living and the dead is an important social ritual as a way of recognising the cycle of life and death that is an inherent component of human existence. In my experience the way western society tends to veil affairs concerning death can be debilitating. When faced with the possibility of losing my father to lymphoma I found that I was drastically unprepared for the years ahead of me. When struck with a paralysing fear I reached out to those around me, only to be wrapped in cotton wool and pushed aside for fear of upsetting me further. I believe that like me when many others are faced with impending loss or sudden departure of a loved one we don’t have the skills in place to understand, accept or approach the different avenues to work through our feelings. And so in turn when trying to comfort another in this situation we shut down entirely. This is most evident when children are involved. If every living thing is affected by two things; life and death both unavoidable and effecting everyone, then why in western culture do we celebrate birth and childhood with such vigour and hide from death with every part of our beings? Why do we find it so difficult to approach the subject in social circles, and most importantly how does our inability to accept the most primal truth of life affect our children’s responses to it? I believe we can learn a lot about death and how to deal with it through looking at other cultures, in particular the way pre Hispanic Mexico celebrates children and death rather than fear and mourn it. I hope to change or influence the way people look at or approach death by learning to celebrate the conuitnuity of life admist death. My images are a playful exploration of la muerte as a parallel existence to the living, one that survives around, within and through us. A macabre body of mixed media prints using images of children as a counterpoint with the morbid. Christian Boltanski said that we are all dead children, we carry the bodies of dead children inside ourselves, they are always dead already and therefore we two are dead. I draw comparisons between the celebrations of the day of the dead and with children’s birthday parties. Each candle representing another dead child within us, each year a celebration of loss.
Finis vitae sed non amoris 2008 The end of life is not the end of love. Through this body of work I investigated the ways that different cultures have traditionally grieved and mourned their dead in relation to today’s less structured traditions. Through the constructions of visual hybrids I have attempted to locate the effects these changes have had on the modern day experience of loss and in my opinion the Euro-American (in)ability to cope wholly with the pain of losing a loved one and freely mourning the dead. How we die has become a powerful commentary on how we live. As far back as 60,000 BC man has buried their dead with ritual and ceremony. On the surface these rituals are determined by that societies religious beliefs, superstitions and history. Furthermore the rituals speak about the socio-economic structure, agriculture and geographical location and present a framework of understanding the ways society functioned, their pastimes and an insight into who the people were (in life as they are in death). Investigation into these histories provides a tangible link to our ancestors, a understanding of the way our own society is structured and an insight into the reasons behind our own rituals that have long been assimilated into or discarded from our every day experience. Most rituals that seem archaic by today’s standards, or in the case of other cultures barbaric, provided people with solace and comfort during times of loss and grief. Belief in ones own God or higher power allowed those left behind to acknowledge the dead, and for those in mourning to in turn be acknowledged. In all cultures throughout history death was seen as an ever present possibility. The way society functioned was a constant reminder that your time was inevitable and everyday brought it one step closer. In the Victorian household death sat across the table from you, adorned in gold, jet and crepe. Many cultures today, still echo ancestral traditions, though in most cases the introduction of different religious and migration has diluted the intensity of both the rituals and the impact they have on a persons life. For example in most Western countries it is expected you wear black to a funeral as a sigh of respect for the dead and the family, but not for the rest of your life as did Queen Victoria. In the west traditional ways of mourning are disappearing, and although Western science has had a major impact on how people die, it has taught us very little about the way to die or the correct ways to grieve. As the older traditions of obedience and respect for elders, religion and tradition have faded, so too has the comfort they once provided. Generations of Westerners are confused about death, socially stunted, unable to publicly mourn and constantly question the ‘correct’ ways to grieve. This can alienate mourners from their friends and family and leave them in a perpetual grief limbo. For the Aztecs, as for other ancient peoples, death signified not an end but a stage in a constant cycle. In Christian Europe, by contrast, death and the last judgement offered either glory or eternal damnation. This positive and negative approach defines the way we understand death and our emotions in this time. All societies see death as a transition for the person who died. Its what happens next that defines and separates a community from the outside world and dictates how those left behind will react and cope with loss. In Euro-American countries where the people are in most part of Western descent it is generally understood that death is meant to be feared. It is inappropriate to air ones feelings and emotions in the public arena and that children above anyone else should be spared as much of the heartbreak as possible. In my opinion sheltering ourselves away from he most primal truth in life can leave us confused and unprepared when faced with our own or another’s final demise. As a people we no longer have the skills needed to express or understand the difficult ways to grieve or to help others in mourning. I believe we can learn a lot about death and how to deal with it by looking at other cultures and their traditions such as the pre Hispanic celebration of Dia De Los Muertos or the Day of the Dead. Traditionally Aztec and Mesoamerican cultures saw life as a dream and only in death did they become truly alive. During this festival Mexicans celebrate their dead and the continuity of life. It is not seen as the final judgement between heaven and hell but as an integral part of our journey. According to popular belief during this festival he dead have divine permission to visit friends and relatives on earth, and to share in the pleasures of the living. Therefore they are never truly gone. Children are involved in every aspect of this festival as they are in all funeral proceedings and death is a subject openly discussed in the household and in the community. From the time they are born children are taught to not fear death but be respectful of the processes of nature, and to understand that although when someone you love dies it will hurt, it is not the final goodbye, but the next step in that persons adventure. Understanding and partaking in this festive interaction with both the dead and the living is an important social ritual as a way of recognising the cycle of life and death that is an inherent component of human existence. Being able to portray death with respect, but also with affection and humour allows children and adults to talk openly and share their emotions without the fear of upsetting someone or themselves. By combining our societies ideas of the correct ways to grieve with historically prominent traditions of mourning such as the adorning of the mourning dress and memento mori, with Mexican imagery of dia de los muteros, I’m creating a new dialogue to approach these subjects in social circles. Because clothes mirror ever nuance of the society in which they are worn, reflecting not only an individuals aesthetic judgement but also is or her social standing and attitudes to society, the realisation of this body of work has been a mourning dress. Sewn from material screen printed with colourful images of the day of the dead celebrations. Macabre imagery such as skulls have been a prominent force because they are traditionally used to symbolise death and rebirth and often found on Victorian momento mori jewellery and art. Patterned elements and photographic reduction screen prints cover the fabric that has been sewn into individual pieces of the mourning dress inc. crinoline, corset, finchu, bustles, aprons, jacket and skirts. Layered together this garment stands as a representation of the history of our traditions mixed with the histories of another cultures, creating new understandings of the ways we mourn. Like the very idea of momento mori I attempt for my work to exist as a macabre yet playful exploration of la muerte as a parallel existence to the living, one that survives around, within and through us. “The Dance of Death” is a common portrayal of death in art an literature, medieval paintings and carvings showing death as an equaliser, striking down both rich are poor, powerful and weak, affecting everybody. The theatrical and performance based nature of this imagery can be likened to that seen on the streets of Mexico during the first week of November each year. For this reason my imagery and the presentation of my work is often based strongly in costume, and shadow. Hoping to breathe new life into inanimate objects, revealing something of life through the representation of death.
 Dance Macabre Projection Installation R.M.I.T 2008   Mourning Dress  Screenprinted poly blend 2008 Dimensions Variable Dance Macabre Performance R.M.I.T 2008 Model; Emily Anderson Detail; Mourning Dress  Model; Emily Anderson Gratefully Dead Jacket R.M.I.T 2008 Finchu  R.M.I.T 2008
Slide Rules Have No Place At My Party 2009 - sculptural exhibition opening Friday 17th July @ 6pm, Brunswick Arts Space 8 Artists exploring the discomfort within the comfort of a suburban utopia. Curated by Monica Zanchetta A dissonant theramin sound track wafts and warbles from carefully constructed paper gramophones.. Carefully boxed slice of a strange landscape, presenting the un-witnessed conception of catastrophe.. Clay cuttlefish and jellyfish that have risen up and begun their invasion.. Tiny model houses, internally lit with malice—a model estate gone wrong.. Calligraphy scribed on tendril like shards of paper.. Photographs that capture those empty moments after you leave.. Imaginary constructs of unrealized worlds, set pieces played out in miniature.. Artists; Emily Anderson Nicole Breedon Miles Brown Patricia Denis Samantha Harris Emma Kuetgens-Fitzpatrick Clover Lawrie Monica Zanchetta OPENING NIGHT: July 17th from 6 to 9 pm. Gallery hours: Thurs to Sat 12 to 5pm
Studio guilt (slash bedroom mess)
Mucho Love Studio Time <3  (Sometimes I print things… Sometimes they are good things…. Sometimes not….  …this sits somewhere in the middle.)