Interior

Sophie Jade Willison
Jeremy Smith
Hannah Toohey
Louella Pleffer
Valentina Penkova
Jacqueline McLeish

Opens Wed 12 October 2016
Exhibition Runs until Sun 23 October 2016

Referring to the inside of something, the word ‘interior’ could describe a person as just as easily as it could describe a room. Interior groups together six contemporary artists – Jacqueline Mcleish, Valentina Penkova, Louella Pleffer, Jeremy Smith, Hannah Toohey and Sophe Jade Willison. Though having divergent art making practices, each artist is concerned with investigations of The Self and our inner states of being. Through this exhibition the gallery space is opened up, and the audience is invited into the private world of each artist.

Bookending the exhibition, the photography practice of Sophie Jade Willison sees both found and original imagery called into play. ‘A Collection of Sculptures’ takes a found diary – a symbol of the personal – and extrapolates its images. Willison’s process of finding, scanning, cropping and printing serves as a personal meditation. This work, as well as her original photographs, offer glimpses into the lives of others.

Jeremy Smith’s practice integrates highly detailed drawing, painting, etching and animation with cartographic conventions and psychology. Using a series of psychological questions to interview participants, Smith maps out intricate portraits of these individuals, incorporating both text and image. Although focusing intently on the experiences and emotions of others, this process also acts as a tool for reflection on one’s own inner state.

On first inspection, Hannah Toohey’s ‘Untitled’ (2013) reveals far less about its maker. Fittingly, Toohey states that the work draws from her discomfort with sharing, yet having the feeling of constantly being on display. Lit by a light box’s warm glow, a collection of fortune cookies sit neatly under a glass dome. Hand crafted yet seemingly perfect in form, each piece is individually made with southern ice porcelain. The fortune cookies entice the viewer yet refuse to divulge their secrets, speaking to the unattainable desire of knowing one’s future self.

Both Jacqueline Mcleish and Louella Pleffer present works which depict architectural interiors. Small in scale and delicate in medium, the works invite an intimate viewing experience. Pleffer’s intricate collages depict scenes which have personal resonance: the artists’ bedroom, a view from a window at her workplace. The title of the work, ‘Eight Line Poem’, refers to the song by David Bowie. Like the song, Pleffer poetically explores the idea that the objects a person surrounds themselves with are a reflection of their personality, emotions and experiences.

Mcleish’s works, on the other hand, investigate environs unfamiliar to her. Her hand-made plates depict interiors of hotel rooms she stayed in whilst travelling in Japan. Each piece denotes a tension between form and content. Plates speak of the personal, the decorative and the domestic, yet that which is depicted speaks of the desire to belong and the discomfort of being away from home.

Valentina Penkova also explores ideas of belonging and unbelonging, relating to her personal experience living between two countries. The new installation ‘Past Presences’ features items collected in Russia alongside photographs taken in Australia. The subject in Penkova’s images seems to grapple with an inescapable interiority – desiring at the same time to retreat into and to emerge from within themselves.

Through divergent art making practices, these artists explore what it means to be inquisitive, vulnerable, complacent, affected, together, alone, and ultimately – human.

Rachael Helmore
Curator[/fusion_text]