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may 28 - june 14, 2008

Home away from Home

by Rattana Lakhonsri

Rattana Lakhonsri’s house like structures, woven from hemp, are inspired by her childhood home in Thailand.  The use of natural fibers allows her to engage the viewer in a sensory exploration of her homeland. 

These meditative works invite the viewer to participate in the narrative of village life, its smells and textures.  Rattana’s peaceful work and choice of materials also conveys the message of her forbearers, who taught subsistence farming as well as the need to be custodians of the land.

Trained in Thailand, in 2002 Rattana Lakhonsri received a UNESCO/Aschberg Bursary to complete a residency at Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces.  She now lives and works in Melbourne.

Leaving it open

by Wendy Grace

This series of watercolour paintings takes the cyclic facility of the natural environment as their point of departure.

Textures and patterns found in nature that simulate the processes of growth and decay are suggested in these fluid and vibrant works on paper. 

The viewer is invited to contemplate the ebb and flow of form and colour which contributes to the rhythm of these abstract works.

 Wendy Grace is a Melbourne based artist who recently completed an Honours year in painting at RMIT University.

Mimesis

by Sally Cleary

Through still-life and landscape ‘mimesis’ reflects on how we observe our surroundings by juxtaposing illusion and reality.

 Cleary takes organic forms and imitates them in the pure fragile medium of porcelain. A hyper real focus is created by dropping these mimicked organic forms into arranged natural settings.

 These works are linked to the Northern European painters of ‘vanitas’ in the 16th and 17th centuries, which explore hedonism and material wealth through still life arrangements of inanimate objects. Paintings executed in the vanitas style are meant as a reminder of the transience of life.

 Having completed an MA, RMIT, Cleary is currently undertaking a PhD in Fine Art, RMIT.  She has exhibited widely in Australia and Hong Kong.