Hope is the thing with Feathers

Hope is the thing with Feathers

• Exhibition dates: 31 October - 10 November Tuesday – Sunday 11am – 5pm Opening: Thursday 31 October 6-8pm

Exhibiting artist: Kirsten Drewes, Marta Ferracin, Melinda Marshman, Elizabeth Rankin, Helen Redmond

Artist/s statement

Hope is the thing with Feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.”
Emily Dickinson

In times of uncertainty, of distrust in civil society and alarm at a boiling planet we experience a fear of loss, a sense of an unknowable ending. We are unexpectedly displaced from ourselves. We are nomads. In this exhibition, the artists respond to the turmoil of the self in a contemporary world –losing what is valued but with a hope for a better future. We must protect the threads of our own lives and truly cherish the environment we share. Kirsten Drewes, Marta Ferracin, Melinda Marshman, Elizabeth Rankin and Helen Redmond respond to the idea of transcending the turmoil of the self in a contemporary world with a belief in a better future in interlocking works.

Kirsten Drewes Hope never dies: These times of uncertainty cause us lose sense of time and place. It made me reflect about my life, about the many lives I lived. Friends I lost on my way, new friends I found. This series of works aims to reflect on the person you are and the person you wish to become. Dreams are disturbed by reality, but fears are balanced by hope. These contradictory feelings are materialised through multi-layered paintings, which visualise windows to different worlds. They are combined with soft sculptures that with their references to sexual but simultaneously deformed bodily forms create ambiguous identities.

Marta Ferracin: Flux: When thinking of hope, Ferracin imagines a future in which we will be able to connect with nature, witnessing its presence and feeling a part of a larger biotic community.
Ferracin collaborates with naturally occurring and hybridised materiality to enhance ecological connectivity and biodiversity awareness. She first seeks permission from the bush, a respectful ritual. The artwork evidences the flows of living matter over two-year time growing onto four man-made waterproof polyester canvases left in the wild, an intimate exchange between the artist’s experimental process and its organic material agency. Ferracin has left time to slow down the process and allow the weather exposure, the passage of animals /insects and the organic matter to do the rest. The result is an alchemic and fertile artwork/substrate made of marks, imprints, multi strata of dust and leaves, organic matter, decolouration, mycorrhizae and roots which are there to reveals the invisible and restless adaptation to the change by the local biodiversity and its ecosystem.

Melinda Marshman: A Hopeful Nature:Hope is the Inner Voice that rises up through defect and whispers, we will try again tomorrow’ Donna Ashworth
Hope is a life sustaining state to be drawn upon in times of personal and collective challenge. When resources of Hope have diminished through a myriad of challenging human experiences, Nature, in all its guises, is for many the place to restore that state of Hope. In her own personal health challenge, Melinda Marshman has again and again turned to nature for solace, finding Natures artistry and its’ ability to transform and renew with each new day, inspiring. Melinda’s A Hopeful Nature, is a series of small oil paintings that memorialise small and simple moments of Natures’ beauty, moments that are available for us every day if we can slow down for long enough to appreciate them. The compositions are spare to highlight the simple moment in a palette designed to evoke optimism, joy and above all hope.

Elizabeth Rankin: Rapunzel and the Witch’s House, is a series of works begun during lockdown when living at home caused Rankin to reflect on other lives she had known. The works form a visual poem, responding to the memory of living as a young mother in the upper level of Kenilworth, a Witch’s House in Annandale, and hoping for and claiming a better future. It is a life is lovingly remembered but a troubled life way above the street with pidgeons as companions and witness to her life. The works incorporate paint on fabric and on linen. This juxtaposition of materials creates a contested meaning within each piece of regret, humour and hope. The Rapunzel figure is Rankin mythologised by her life and becoming at times chimera-a pidgeon/woman.

Helen Redmond: Into the Light. Redmond’s painting practice is influenced by architecture. Trained as a journalist and interior designer working with architectural photographers shaped her understanding of light and space as her aesthetic. Her interest in the ‘psycho-geography’ of space led to the decision to leave publishing to explore expression through painting. Helen is represented by Otomys.

Instagram:

@elizabethrankin50
@kirsten_drewes
@helenredmondart
@melindamarshmanartist

Website:
https://www.martaferracin.com/



For more information contact Elizabeth Rankin via email rankin_family@optusnet.com or 0417 487 711