16.11.2015 | 19.00 | Trükimuuseum (Kastani 42, Tartu)
Australian artist Neil Malone is concluding his 1 month residency in Tartu with an exhibition that will show the works which he has created during his stay at the Trükimuuseum. Additionally, some of his earlier prints will be on display in a concise retrospective. The exhibition takes place on Monday the 16th of November at 19.00 at the Trükimuuseum.
Neil is an artist that has walked a remarkable path in the arts. During his long career, he has experimented with painting, printmaking, digital work and installation. He started exhibiting in Australia in the 1970’s, and was a printer of many prominent Australian artists including George Baldessin, Roger Kemp and John Olsen. He has lectured Printmaking at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne since 1983 and was appointed head of this department from 2000 until 2012. Over the last 15 years as well as exhibitions in Australia, Neil has focused his practice on Asia, undertaking several invited Residencies and Exhibitions, among which the 2014 Open Competition International Mokuhanga Exhibition, where he won the Grand Prize. Earlier this year Neil was also awarded the Burnie Print Prize, one of Australia’s most prestigious printmaking prizes.
His exhibition at the Trükimuuseum titled ‘Slippages’ deals with the idea of relocation, adjustment and reinvention.
“In Australia we drive on the left! When l cross the road in Estonia I habitually look right, left, right and often nearly get myself killed moving forward too early. We all have learnt behaviours and understandings which are workable in a specific place, but survival depends on adjusting and reinventing ourselves when this place is changed.
In this exhibition I have worked from 2 opposite poles to explore this idea of relocation to Estonia and the Estonian Printing Museum. These approaches both develop my interest in thinking through making, utilising printmaking and this new visual environment I’m in. At the heart of this is the belief that the engagement with material limitations and process provokes new opportunities for thinking, understanding ideas and the possibility of growth and reorganising thoughts to fit the moment. I have approached this idea from two opposite poles:
First I have taken wooden letters from the Museum collection which clearly define the alphabet, but are different in their shape according to the font. I have used them to construct Estonian and English words of decision. These words are then dissolved by reprinting until the ink has gone leaving a disintegrated blurred image, thus disrupting the intention of the words and fonts to create an other.
Second, starting with the “dissolved”, by drawing randomly on a copper plate and stopping to print the results I gradually found a method to fit my visual and cultural immersion in the Tartu landscape. This has developed from using repetitive lines to build forms that resemble aspects of the Tartu wooden structures and eroded surfaces. These images seem precise, much as the initial text of the first approach were, but their definite structures leads to open interpretation.
Both these sets of work use the slippage between knowing how something is made and what it is imagined to be… to create a way of attempting to look left right left!”
Neil would be very open to discussion and talks afterwards. A little demonstration of the techniques that he used is also among the possibilities, if there is interest.
More about Neil: http://residency.tartuensis.com/?p=1383 and http://neilmalone.com/.
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1498052500489505/
See you there!