Cool Change Contemporary, Perth WA
6 July – 27 July 2019
In her seminal 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”, Linda Nochlin tells the story of Thomas Eakins’ life-class at the Pennsylvania Academy in the middle of the nineteenth century – instead of using a nude man for a women’s still life class, a live cow was placed in the middle of the room and served as the model for the female students.
The collaged fabric in Ersatz is a new representation of female artists in art history, a simulacrum, an ersatz reality. The forms used in this work are taken from paintings, sculptures and photographs, turned into digitalised pictures, items and images and ultimately become giant illustrative collages on pieces of fabric. These things are transformed from heavy to hard to soft, making the final product something wholly removed from the original.
1. I can see your halo (After O’Keeffe), 2019
Photographic print on cotton canvas, white thread, steel pole, rope
1.4 X 2.4m
2. Basket case baby (After Peeters), 2019
Photographic print on cotton canvas, white thread, steel pole, rope
1.4 X 2.4m
3. My landscape is growing and changing (After Blau), 2019
Photographic print on cotton canvas, white thread, steel pole, rope
1.4 X 2.4m