ARTIST STATEMENT FOR ‘NATURA MORTA’ WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION ‘EARTHLY DELIGHTS’
AT JACKMAN GALLERY 8th JULY to 28th JULY, 2012
Title: Natura Morta works from the series Earthly Delights (2011-12)
Medium: Natura Morta works are each presented in one of three forms:
– Original Collage on found bi-folds, size 70.2cm(h) x 53.6cm(w)
– Digital prints of collage detail printed on archival Hahnemule cotton-rag paper in edition of 20.
– Digital prints of collage detail printed on canvas in editions of 5.
In Natura Morta works, from the series Earthly Delights, I have extended my visual exploration of the world around me with an intergenerational and cross-cultural collage ‘play’.
The series was conceived in 2011 whilst on a trip to Italy with fellow artists, where I happened upon a second-hand set of reproduction prints depicting antique views of Tuscany, Viaggio Pittorico della Toscana (‘Pictorial Journey of Tuscany’). The reproduction bi-fold pages were exquisite in their detail, encased in battered cardboard bindings, and blemished with age. It felt like I had uncovered a treasure trove buried in time.
My impulse has been to work from each bi-fold in turn, using the material as a source of compositional inspiration for collage, referencing the genre of still life (natura morta) and incorporating some of my own etching work as collage fragments, as well as found imagery from magazines, books and reproduction medical texts. I am proposing alternative pictorial journeys for the viewer, seen through the lens of my own gender and culture – that of a twenty-first century feminist Australian artist with a Mediterranean heritage.
Natura Morta works (2011-12) from the series Earthly Delights are exhibited either as original collages on bifold support, or as limited edition prints from collage on canvas and/or on archival Hahnemule photorag paper.
Sophia Xeros-Constantinides folio 