Exhibition: Door to Door

My artwork Today’s Modern Well Dressed Shark will be part of the exhibition ‘Door to Door’ to be held at No Vacancy Gallery, 34-40 Jane Bell Lane, Melbourne, from 9 to 14 February, 2021.

The exhibition launch will be on Thursday 11th February 6-8pm.

In March at the beginning of lockdown, I was invited to be part of ‘Art in the time of COVID-19’ or ‘Art from isolation’. This project began in Australia and now includes artists based in the UK & Europe.

Artists were supplied via email with a page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge 1950’s Encyclopedia (Edited by Enid Blyton) selected at 'random' which was to form the basis of an artwork to be exhibited at some time on the other side of the Pandemic. The page could act as inspiration for the colours, forms, texture, feeling or as a research starting point to dive down the rabbit hole!

Some of the works that have eventuated reference the Pandemic and feelings of isolation, others act as a beautiful escape from the world outside and a journey back to the discoveries of childhood.

My page from Newnes' Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopedia, Volume 1, The story of the World in the days of long ago was ‘Ancestor of the Shark’, which shows images of primitive fish from the Devonian period. They look fairly harmless.

I decided to focus on the contemporary shark, which is usually portrayed as aggressive, fearsome and dangerous, a silent predator that can catch you unawares. As such it is often used as a cultural symbol of looming or unsuspected danger.

My modern well-dressed shark is made from paper, handmade using marine macroalgae (seaweeds) – lowly life forms from the sea which are also often misunderstood and underappreciated. A number of different seaweeds have been used, which have each been individually processed. The pulps were then combined in water to form this single sheet of paper.