Jo Higgins

April 27, 2016

Writings

Lottie Consalvo: mid-fall, Alaska Projects

Jo Higgins

April 27, 2016

Writings

My text to accompany Newcastle-based artist Lottie Consalvo’s recent exhibition mid-fall.

Alaska Projects, Sydney, 27 April – 15 May, 2016

Lottie Consalvo is contemplating time. Years, nano-seconds, moments of eternity, transition, points of no return – these moments of between and becoming are explored in her current series of abstract paintings.

Consalvo’s interdisciplinary practice includes performative and often quite specific autobiographical references and this collection of works represents not one, but a series of moments in time. They are observations of quietly transformative experiences – from her 12-month long durational performance, Compartmentalise in 2012, to her recent travels around Ireland absorbing its rough hewn beauty – all stone circles, limestone and rain – and its reverence for spirits and shrines.

Lottie Consalvo, mid-fall (study), 2016, edition of 1 and 2 AP, size varied, glicée print on cotton rag. — Lottie Consalvo, *mid-fall (study)*, 2016, edition of 1 and 2 AP, size varied, glicée print on cotton rag.

Lottie Consalvo, Hanging mountains, 2016, acrylic, charcoal and plaster on board — Lottie Consalvo, *Hanging mountains,* 2016, acrylic, charcoal and plaster on board

This travel and Consalvo’s latest series of paintings have actually occurred in the middle of her latest 12-month durational piece, Desires, wherein she has given herself permission to do those things that make her happiest. The works in mid-fall do not explore any particular desire. What they reflect is Consalvo’s ongoing fascination with states of mind, in particular memory and how certain psychological states reflect physically and within the physical world.

In mid-fall Consalvo considers time, momentum and the nature of transition; something she is necessarily experiencing as a consequence of her long-durational performance work. Here, the habits and rituals of her everyday life are incrementally transformed by the terms of the work and she looks back only in order to observe her progress; to locate those tipping points of no return (which she so deftly illustrates in mid-fall (study) and then again in mid-fall). There is nothing regretful or nostalgic in these considerations, simply a conscious fascination with process, memory, transformation, and the possibility for ritual within it.

Shrines have long been of interest to Consalvo; as places for solitude, faith and reflection and in these works she draws on experiences of reverie – standing in the rain at Powerscourt Waterfall in Wicklow, Ireland – to her own small moments of ceremony – collecting and grounding coal from her garden fire to embed in her painterly surfaces – to create a series of visual spaces that resonate with the quiet emotional energy of these experiences.

Lottie Consalvo, Stones fall faster than water and I will always love you, 2016, acrylic, charcoal, beads and plaster on board. — Lottie Consalvo, *Stones fall faster than water and I will always love you,* 2016, acrylic, charcoal, beads and plaster on board.

Several works in the series, including Stones Fall Upon Tall Men, make direct reference to the visual forms of totems and shrines and in addition to the use of coal Consalvo has also used casting plaster. Drawn to its associative fragility and painterly qualities, she incorporates it both within the painted surface and sculpturally, to emulate the collections of stones. The contrast between these bright whites and the pure black only highlighted by the rest of Consalvo’s deliberately subdued palette of earthy, dark tones.

These recurring motifs – the stones, the totems, and these senses of falling or yielding towards new states of being – are necessarily abstract. Flying and Falling, one of the earlier works to be created in the series is unsurprisingly the most figurative and reflects another moment of transition within the series – away from the literal and didactic – towards something more instinctive and emotional.

By abstracting these notions of reflection, memory and momentum, Consalvo instead meditates on the power of certain places (be they literal, emotional or psychological) to bring about transition and change. So long as you have faith enough to let go.

20th Biennale of Sydney: The future is here it's just not evenly distributed

Jo Higgins

March 18, 2016

Writings

The 20th Biennale of Sydney has just opened, under the Artistic Direction of Hayward Gallery curator Stephanie Rosenthal. The future is already here: it’s just not evenly distributed runs until 5 June at venues across Sydney including Carriageworks, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Artspace and Cockatoo Island.

I had the opportunity and privilege to contribute to the Biennale’s exhibition guide, writing about 14 international and Australian artists including Johanna Calle, Celine Condorelli, Yannick Dauby & Wan Shuen Tsai, Keg de Souza, Bharti Kher, Germaine Kruip, Bo Christian Larsson, Minouk Lim, Jumana Manna, Melik Ohanian, Bernardo Ortiz, Falke Pisano, Christoph Schlingensief and Alexis Teplin.

You can read my artist profiles here.

Educating People Like Us

Jo Higgins

September 22, 2015

Writings

Since late 2014 I’ve been working with UNSW Galleries as an education consultant to develop a series of educational resources for their touring exhibition People Like Us. It’s just opened at UNSW Galleries and will set off on a 15 stop national tour from January 2016.

Su-Mei Tse, Sound for an Insomniac, 2007 — Su-Mei Tse, *Sound for an Insomniac*, 2007

I’ve just written an article about the process for Museums & Galleries New South Wales which you can read here.

More Marina Magic

Jo Higgins

July 12, 2015

Writings

How many teenagers in their lifetime get a masterclass in performance art from the internationally acclaimed Marina Abramovic?

Well, I know of eight. And they’re all from Dubbo.

On Saturday 3 July, the Kaldor Public Art regional engagement project reached its halfway point. The pilot, in the context of our recent project with Abramovic, has proven to be a unique and hugely rewarding opportunity to engage with ideas around performance art using the very immediate experiences of our teenage participants.

Through a series of workshops, discussions, exercises and activities (led by myself, theatre director Imara Savage and artist Lottie Consalvo) we’ve been exploring the role of the body as a gesture or action in art making. We’ve also been looking at ideas of presence and energy and the role of the audience, and asking our intrepid participants to mine their own ideas and experiences, challenging them to consider how they might explore some of these emotions and responses as a work of art.

Earlier this month the participants joined us in Sydney for two days at Pier 2/3. It was a chance to experience Project 30 – Marina Abramovic: In Residence and to be part of our dedicated public program event with Western Plains Cultural Centre aptly titled, The Western Plains Respond. It was also an opportunity for them to see their learning and works-in-progress in the context of the 12 emerging Australian artists living in residence at the Pier (of which Lottie was one) and to meet the rest of the Kaldor Public Art Projects team.

The Marina masterclass wasn’t on the agenda. It was an impromptu event, proposed by Marina herself no less, after she met everyone on Friday and was told about what they’ve been up to for the last couple of months. Marina challenged them to explain their ideas, asked critical questions, gave thoughtful feedback and told them in no uncertain terms to commit to their ideas, especially the ones that frightened them, because they usually proved to be the most important ones.

All of which will be on display during the special one-day exhibition at Dubbo Regional Gallery at the Western Plains Cultural Centre on Sunday 26 July.

This huge and exciting culmination to the project is a chance for the participants to present their work as serious young artists, and to learn what’s involved in curating an exhibition. Which is why Kent Buchanan, Curator of the WPCC and Andrew Glassop, WPCC General Manager, along with the rest of the Dubbo team are taking the unprecedented step of giving them their own exhibition space in the main gallery.

Their final performance pieces, which will be curated by Kent, deftly explores their teenage experiences of disconnection, feminism, mental health, love, worry and expectation.

Presented from 11am as part of a special day-long, free public program that includes the official launch of the Public Art of Dubbo website by Deputy Premier and NSW Arts Minister, the Hon. Troy Grant, and an afternoon panel discussion on the changing nature of public art. Chaired by Kent Buchanan, panellists include Kaldor Public Art Projects Director John Kaldor, artist Alex Wisser and Regional Arts Development Officer for Orana Arts, Alecia Leggett. And probably a participant or seven.

The day gets underway at 10.30am and concludes at 3pm with refreshments and informal reflections. No bookings are required and the events and exhibition are free to attend.

It’s an important moment for us in our pilot project but beyond that, it’s a very special opportunity to experience the work of some exciting young artists who have absolutely earned an audience for their work. Just ask Marina.

This article was written for Museums and Galleries New South Wales in my capacity as Regional Engagement Coordinator for Kaldor Public Art Projects and originally published on 11 July 2015. http://mgnsw.org.au/articles/more-marina-magic/

Art Collector cover story

Jo Higgins

July 12, 2015

Writings

A couple of months ago I had the enormous privilege of interviewing the Ukranian-born, Melbourne/Tokyo-based artist Stanislava Pinchuk about her latest body of work for her debut show this September at Karen Woodbury Gallery.

It’s one of the most staggeringly beautiful, heart-breaking, extraordinarily poetic responses to grief and conflict and loss I’ve seen in a long while. I was so moved by her visual eloquence.

And so it seems were Art Collector, who put her work on their latest cover. I think in writing terms, that’s called vicarious glory.

You can read the full interview and profile here.

Stanislava Pinchuk (miso)
Surface to Air
2-26 September, 2015
Karen Woodbury Gallery, Melbourne
http://kwgallery.com/#

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