Summary

In a paradoxical twist, I found myself in mid-2002 reviewing fellow printmaking colleagues’ work placing me in that liminal space of ‘traitor’ or ‘accentuator’. It was soon after this review release that I was confronted by all three (3) women and over a coffee, at the Printmakers Association of Western Australia building (in what was the Cultural Precinct next to PICA) we dissected my prose and discovered that we had more in common that in comparison. This was my last ‘review’ as a fledging critic and I retire gracefully back to my own studio having learned a lesson indeed.

Review

GO FIGURE
Prints by ANN BOWMAN, SANDRA LEE MURPHY and GUINEVERE BELL
9th March - 7 April 2002 @ FREMANTLE ARTS CENTRE

“… Peculiar to everyday day talk stands the invitation title - Go Figure. As a literary prompt it has the potential to act as a tongue-in-cheek quip, or in this case, slide slowly through to the obvious literal visual reference for the human form in the artworks of this exhibition.

If it were at all possible to stand far enough away from the strongest of the work, given the confines of their sanctioned corridor-wide viewing, the dissections and combinations of body parts presented float mysteriously as a mass of surreptitiously rendered snapshots. Noticeably, each Artist has employed the collagraph printmaking technique, whether as a collaborative consideration or as a loosely intended thematic rendezvous.

Sorting through similarities in style or content is thankfully not an issue here. Each Artist stands on her own employing vastly different interpretations of what appears to be a confronting theme. Intertwined with body parts and alternate views are the narrative of each individual's bent -  symbolic, observed, or simply included with a sense of discovery. Smoky rooms, hands, private moments, and many other symbols play their part in this complex visual foray.

Guinnevere Bell's portrayal of everyday scenes, objects, scenarios, and circumstances all creep forward as a  dream-like narrative. Floating as pinned projectiles for the viewer to consider in a linear pattern, Guinnevere presents images that oscillate peacefully in aqueous tones while reverberating with honest content.

Ann Bowman's exquisite Heartstrings is of the purest collagraph technique, realized, considered and beautiful in its result. The use of grain and other mixed media procure the viewing public to observe more closely the hyper-real hair, the skin, and the bone that stretch their way into the picture plane.

Sandra Lee Murphy introduces the use of fine sands, copper plate, and wire in both print and sculptural form as if it were her skin that was to be stitched, drawing near her marks and thoughts, moulded as small assemblages. The use of hard-edged lines and gritty colours permeate and punctuate the field of view, appearing to seek the repudiation of traditionally considered etching umbers and relief-driven blacks.

Vague Frontiers, also by Sandra Lee Murphy consisting of 16 handmade bags (containing the occasional relief print) slips silently to the end of the corridor in this large and echoed hall. Shadows of figures loom from the confines of a commodified and codified grid-like pattern, lost to the strength and conviction of the other printed works adjacent in this show.

Go Figure reeks of quality, and is punctuated by some truly fine pieces of print media.

Links

https://web.archive.org/web/20030519033404/http://www.artseeninwa.com/gofigure.html