Contemporary art

Art connects family in a time of COVID-19

tanya.sticca@artgallery.wa.gov.au — Wed, 22 Sep 2021 01:55:09 +0000

Art connects family in a time of COVID-19

Tayla Wetherall diary sketches for her work Don't you forget about me 2020 (detail).

tanya.sticca@a… Wed 22/09/2021 - 9:55am

22 September 2021

AGWA Pulse Youth Advisory Panel member Grace Cole recently spoke to this year’s Pulse Perspectives artist Tayla Wetherall about her work Don’t you forget about me. Created while Tayla was studying Year 12 ATAR Visual Arts at Iona Presentation College, it focuses on themes of family connections and the passage of time. These themes resonated with Cole upon her first viewing of the work at the Pulse Perspectives exhibition and she shares her reflections on the piece below.

Yes

Pulse Perspectives AGWA installation view, August 2021. Tayla Wetherall with her work Don't you forget about me 2020. Oil on canvas, 91 x 61 cm. Iona Presentation College.

Off

About The Artwork

Impressively executed, Don't you forget about me is a poignant artwork.

The simplicity of the subject matter allows the viewer to instantly understand the emotion, particularly within the context in which it was made. Upon first viewing the artwork, it brought me to the verge of tears; thoughts of abandoned family members during COVID-19 come to mind.

The subject matter is that of artist Tayla Wetherall's grandmother. When Tayla was 11 years old, she left South Africa and moved to Perth. Tayla's grandmother still resides in South Africa, a quarter of the way across the globe. Tayla speaks of this artwork as a way of representing the family connections which cannot be maintained as easily now that international travel isn't an option for most.

Tayla mentions that her Grandmother turned 80 this year and that their family would have loved to celebrate with her; while her Grandmother would have loved to visit Pulse Perspectives to view Tayla's artwork in person.

Gran turned 80 this year, she couldn't come to see the work; we couldn't come over to celebrate with her. The time spent on the work weighed on me a lot.

Tayla Wetherall

Pulse Perspectives Artist

According to Tayla, time was an inescapable theme of the piece. Tayla spent six to seven months creating her work, with a lot changing in the world throughout the making process.

The message that Tayla wants every viewer to take away from her artwork is incredibly important: "Don't forget about your family who live a bit further away that you don't see as often. Don't forget to have those connections."

Tayla Wetherall and her Grandmother.

Off

I know we all want to see our friends and go out but don't forget about the family events, the family dinners and that kind of family bond.

Tayla Wetherall

Pulse Perspectives Artist

Tayla Wetherall Don't you forget about me 2020.
Oil on canvas, 91 x 61 cm. Iona Presentation College.

In Detail

1. The face: The gaze draws in the viewer's attention, emphasising the centre of the image with the face as the focal point. The light beige tones of the face contrast the dark muted brown tones of the shadows behind the figure, further emphasising the face. The distant gaze portrays a sense of separation and longing for the bright outside world. The face is also one of the most detailed sections of the image.

2. Cigarette: The cigarette is a symbol of comfort through its ritualistic nature. My gran would always smoke her daily cigarette near the window or sitting on her patio step. It was her time to relax, watch the outside world and unwind.

3. Barred windows: The almost jail-like windows are used as a physical separation from the foreground and the figure. This separation is further emphasised through the contrast of the organic figure and bedding in the midground and background, as well as the geometric horizontal and vertical lines of the windows.

4. Dark interior, light exterior: The muted brown tones convey a sad and dreary interior that contacts the light exterior, shining through the windows and casting light onto the bed in the midground. Contrast in colour portrays a clear divide of the environments. This mixed with the longing gaze conveys a desire for a "brighter" environment and time.

5. Gown: The vivid royal blue colour of the gown contrasts against other muted tones in the image, emphasising the centre of the image. The mix of beige tones and vivid blue colours creates a calm atmosphere.

6. Stance near window: The figure is positioned close to the widow to emphasise a sense of longing for the outside.

“Due to the pandemic the sense of separation and longing is more relevant than ever, so I channeled my own experience with this into my work, particularly with family. My gran has always been there for the important milestone moments throughout my life and when I moved to Perth that separation was hard. When the pandemic hit she felt even further away, so my piece is an ode to her; to recognise that even though we are so far away, we’ll never forget to celebrate the special moments and milestones.”

Tayla Wetherall diary sketches for her work Don't you forget about me 2020.

The Making Process

Tayla mentions that there was a lot of planning required in preparing the making process. Don't you forget about me is the second piece in a set of two. Tayla wasn't satisfied with the outcome of the first piece but felt that the final piece, the product of around six months of hard work, turned out exactly the way she had intended it to be.

In the creation of the piece, Tayla sought inspiration from artists like Edward Hopper and found the help her teachers provided to be indispensable for her in creating her work and the concepts behind it.

The concept is just as important as the finished product. You need to come up with that concept in a week.

Tayla Wetherall

Pulse Perspectives Artist

ATAR Visual Arts can be hectic. Tayla advises future students to take the time to seek help from teachers to better themselves and to tackle the visual and written components of Visual Arts ATAR in small, manageable chunks: "A paragraph of analysis here and there, a little bit of work on your piece."

For Tayla, Don't you forget about me holds sentimental value and inspiration. "[The piece was] the first thing that showed me that you will get there if you spend enough time and work hard enough ". Tayla not only topped art in her high school and made it into Pulse Perspectives, but she also received Iona Presentation College's Principal's Award.

Tayla spoke of the tremendous support she and her peers have received from her school in facilitating the student's artistic visions. Pictured below is a display within Iona's art department featuring Tayla's artworks from years 7 to 12.

Tayla describes the process of producing her painting as long, tedious, and yet so rewarding. She never expected her work to get into Pulse Perspectives as the prospect had seemed like an unattainable dream.

Tayla Wetherall's art from Year 7 - 12 at Iona Presentation College.

Off

[There are] so many amazing works in Pulse Perspectives that just goes to show the calibre of skill, effort, time and teachers’ support: it's just an amazing exhibition. Every year it's amazing.

Tayla Wetherall

Pulse Perspectives Artist

Don't you forget about me is truly a piece that should be appreciated in person. The sheer scale of the work and its realism strikes the viewer in a beautiful way.

Pulse Perspectives is on display at the Gallery until 27 September 2021.

Pulse Perspectives

AGWA Pulse

Contemporary art

Grace Cole

Card Text

YAP member Grace Cole speaks to Pulse Perspectives artist Tayla Wetherall about her work Don’t you forget about me. Inspired by Tayla’s personal experience during Covid-19 it’s a piece that speaks of not forgetting family and your connections with them.

Challenging Convention

tanya.sticca@artgallery.wa.gov.au — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 04:57:30 +0000

Challenging Convention

Sean Cameron Collected views from dinner 2020 (detail). Pencil and ink on paper with mixed media, 90 x 197 cm (overall). Applecross Senior High School.

tanya.sticca@a… Mon 20/09/2021 - 12:57pm

20 September 2021

The Pulse Perspectives exhibition is close to the heart of many of our AGWA Pulse Youth Advisory Panel (YAP) Members. The featured works are created by emerging young artists from Western Australia, passionate and keen to share narratives that are of shared interest, experience, and relevance.

YAP member Kim Coley has been a member of the AGWA Pulse advisory committee for two years. Actively involved in the Perth art scene, she spoke to this year's Pulse Perspectives artist Sean Cameron about his work Collected view from dinner. Read on to gather an incredible insight into his highly personal and powerful piece.

Sean Cameron is a young Perth creative whose work he describes as incredibly "existential" and "very gay". Art for Cameron is a "shield" and an outlet for his more emotional and vulnerable sides, which he often finds harder to express during his daily life. Join us as we sit down with Cameron and delve into the thought processes, journeys and experiences which led to his 2020 Pulse Perspectives piece Collected views from dinner.

Yes

Pulse Perspectives AGWA installation view, August 2021. Sean Cameron with his work Collected views from dinner 2020. Pencil and ink on paper with mixed media, 90 x 197 cm (overall). Applecross Senior High School.

Off

Your piece is titled “Collected views from dinner”. Could you please expand more on how you came to this title and why?

Whenever I'm making artworks, I usually get a lot of inspiration for the name from a song title, particularly if I can't think of anything. I believe Collected views from dinner is a song on a kilo kish album. It's basically audio of a dinner party, and I thought it well encapsulated the piece's elements. It sounds good and explains it without being overly pretentious.

Your artist statement highlights the concept of family and the process of establishing a "chosen" family and community. Do you personally think these concepts are well represented within the art scene from a non-heteronormative standpoint?

Queer identity and family aren't talked about much in the art world, especially in Perth. At the start of the year, my school took us around to a lot of exhibitions. I never once saw a queer work discussing queer identity, which really inspired me to (talk about it). But it got better. My original artist statement mentioned how the art world is really heteronormative, particularly in Perth. However, my teacher drew my attention to an exhibition called here and now 20 by Brent Harrison. This was showing at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery later that year which was great to see.

Is there anything specific you would like people to know about your work?

My work is often very gay; that's the intention. It is often quite personal in a way because it's something I'm not good at talking about. So in a way, my work is vocalisation and a "shield".

Sean Cameron

Pulse Perspectives Artist

How has COVID-19 affected your creative process?

It's really made it more interpersonal, where I focus on my own feelings and my thoughts. It's really forced me to look at my own identity, thought processes and where I believe I fit in the world instead of looking outside at social issues. Before COVID-19, I remember the original idea for this work focused on how queer identity disrupts the "traditional family", especially with same-sex marriage. I think COVID really forced me to look at how I engage with family instead of how the world thinks I engage with family.

Sean Cameron Collected views from dinner 2020 (detail). Pencil and ink on paper with mixed media, 90 x 197 cm (overall). Applecross Senior High School.

Would you have displayed your piece within the Pulse Perspectives exhibition any differently?

I don't think so. I actually really like how it's been displayed. Whenever I've had queer works within a space, I've found that there tends to be a habit of it being placed within an "unconventional area". So having that piece be chosen to be put in the centre is great.

Considering what you've achieved so far, do you have any future plans, hopes, or projects concerning art that people should look out for?

I am studying graphic design, so my art practice is all over the place, but I really intend to make more art. I want to create a direct extension and discourse around these ideas, focusing on queer identity and expression; analysing different aspects. It's difficult when you're not being forced to do art at school.

Consider the use of an unconventional canvas within your piece and its installation aspect. Concerning COVID-19, how important is the experience of viewing art in person vs digitally?

I think it's really important to view art in person. Even if online the art is still presented in the same way as seeing it in person. However, it takes it to another level, mainly when they discuss something quite personal to people. It reminds people that there are others out there like them, as opposed to seeing art on a screen that is an "idea away".

What does having your piece in the 2020 Pulse Perspectives exhibition mean to you?

It means a lot, especially when it's a piece discussing queer identity and related areas that are often not spoken about in the art world. So it's great for me to talk about it without it being seen as "overbearing". I'll talk to myself and my friends about it, but having a way to talk about this to a broader audience and be welcomed in that environment is really powerful.

Sean Cameron

Pulse Perspectives Artist

Pulse Perspectives is on display at the Gallery until 27 September 2021.

Pulse Perspectives

AGWA Pulse

Contemporary art

Kim Coley

Card Text

Exploring Queer Identity in Pulse Perspectives

Finding solace in the Gallery

Phoebe — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 06:07:31 +0000

Finding solace in the Gallery

Robyn O'Neil Crowd scene 1 2014 (detail). Graphite and oil pastel on paper, 31.2 x 36.8 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014.

Phoebe Thu 27/08/2020 - 2:07pm

3 September 2020

From the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement to the sweeping impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic, 2020 has undoubtedly been a year of extremes. At times like these, we are reminded of art’s unique capacity to comfort, connect us to each other and provide a vehicle for confronting injustice. Recently our curators selected a series of works from your State Collection that capture different experiences of COVID-19 as well as foregrounding narratives about racism and Australia’s own complex history.

Works by artists including Willy Lenski, FriendsWithYou, Atelier van Lieshout, Robyn O’Neil, Reko Rennie and Tony Albert invite reflection on the fragility and uncertainty of life: its ambiguities, cycles, warmth and connections. Explore how these works resonate with your own recent experiences in this selection from the AGWA Contemporary gallery.

Yes

FriendsWithYou Little cloud 2013. Vacuum-formed acrylic, 76.2 x 60.9 x 48.3 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014.

Off

We view the cloud emblem as an enduring symbol of love and light. It has the power to transcend the viewer to a relaxed and joyous state, revealing that everything in our world has a soul and a purpose—a spiritual essence. This animist perspective reflects in our work as a sweet visual soundscape, casting a positive message of happiness and connectivity.

FriendsWithYou Collective

Reko (Gwaybilla) Rennie⁣ Message sticks 2009⁣. Spray paint and synthetic polymer paint on linen⁣, 198 x 85 cm each (6 panels in total)⁣. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia⁣. Purchased through the TomorrowFund, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2010.

Off

Reko Rennie's Message sticks presents rows and rows of spray cans as a reflection on the the new and old ways that Aboriginal people have communicated across the millennia. Each spray can is imprinted with a traditional Kamilaroi linear shield design, symbolising a continuum of tradition and culture.⁣ From his early career as a graffiti artist to now, Reko Rennie has explored how issues around identity, social justice and a sense of place can be expressed through art.

Viviane Sassen Ivy 2010. C-type print/dark frame ed 4/8, 125 x 100 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2012.

Off

Viviane Sassen’s series Parasomnia references a sleep disorder characterised by sleepwalking, and thus existing in a state between dream and reality. Shot in deliberately unidentified locations in Africa, the series was her way of processing complex childhood memories of the continent where she lived as a young child. While for her working within the conceptual framework of parasomnia is a way to understand her personal connection to Africa, her work carries an incredible stillness created between the real and the surreal.

Willy Lenski Life may be seen as a gesture 1987. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on jute, 50.9 x 92.2 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 1988.

Off

This work by American painter Willy Lenski, Life may be seen as a gesture, depicts the dance of life. A dance celebrating survival after a plague, a return to cycles of living and life as it was before. Completed in 1987, this work reflected on the AIDS epidemic where fear kept the community divided, but human connection kept it together. This work has shades of light and dark, a shared moment of sadness and joy. We grieve what we have lost but celebrate moving forward together.

AGWA Contemporary installation view, 2020. Atelier van Lieshout Sensory deprivation skull 2007. Reinforced fibreglass, 150 x 110 x 137 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2008.

Off

Made by the Dutch-based designer Joep van Lieshout for his anarchic free state AVL-Ville in Rotterdam, this contemporary memento mori doubles as a refuge from the business of modern life, a haven for introverts, a cosy and sensual space for one.

Robyn O'Neil Crowd scene 1 2014. Graphite and oil pastel on paper, 31.2 x 36.8 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2014.

Off

Robyn O’Neil’s exquisitely perfect and large graphite drawings usually depict turbulent landscapes with a lonely figure or several disconnected ones. Using coloured oil pastels and squeezing her people together on a small picture plane, O’Neil thought she was setting herself up for failure—deliberately—as a means of pushing through a creative rut. During the time the Gallery was shut to the public, it was this work that I would think of and crave to share the most.

Dunja Rmandić

AGWA Curator

Tony Albert “MISUNDERSTANDING” 2020. Acrylic spray paint on vintage velvet painting, 36 x 26 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2020. © Tony Albert. Image courtesy Sullivan+Strumpf.

Off

Through his practice and collection of Aboriginalia—featuring the voiceless and the nameless—Tony Albert reveals the many voices and stories behind the objects, and reinforces that the conversations and connections they involve will always be complex and nuanced, time after time.

Sally Brand

National Gallery of Australia

“MISUNDERSTANDING” responds to the devastating detonation of explosives by mining giant Rio Tinto in May this year, which destroyed two sacred rock caves at Juukan Gorge, north-west of Tom Price in the Pilbara, which dated back more than 46,000 years. Albert’s velvet series draws on his collection of Aboriginalia: domestic and tourist artefacts that include images of Aboriginal people, their cultural objects and designs.

See these works and more in this recent rehang of our AGWA Contemporary gallery and Concourse space. With certain works including Reko Rennie's Message sticks on display for a just a few more weeks, don't miss out on seeing this thought-provoking selection in person this month.

AGWA

Card Text

From the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement to the global impact of COVID-19, 2020 has undoubtedly been a year of extremes. Recently our curators selected a series of works from your State Collection that reflect recent events.

AGWA Contemporary Rehang

Human Figure, Myths and Politics

tanya.sticca@artgallery.wa.gov.au — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 06:12:56 +0000

Human Figure, Myths and Politics

Khadim Ali Untitled 1 [from the Fragmented memories series] 2017-2018. Gouache, gold leaf and ink, 170 x 214.5 cm (framed, nine individual components). State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through the Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation: TomorrowFund, 2019.

tanya.sticca@a… Mon 06/07/2020 - 2:12pm

11 October 2019

Presenting works from 1970 to today, the AGWA Contemporary collection reveals the wide span of contemporary art practice with its diverse range of media, themes and identities. A recent collection display curated by AGWA Associate Curator of 21st Century Arts Dunja Rmandić gives particular emphasis to the human figure as a conduit of symbols, hero status, myths, cultural references, fantasies and stereotypes across different cultures. While the majority of works feature the human figure in one way or another, a recurring theme sees the subject’s eyes or faces obscured, masked or otherwise turned away, echoing the complexity of identity politics. Read on for Rmandić’s insights on some of the display’s key works.

Yes

Christian Thompson Down Under World [from the We bury our own series] 2012. C-type print, 98 x 98 cm each. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased through The Leah Jane Cohen Bequest, Art Gallery of Western Australia Foundation, 2015. © Christian Thompson, 2012.

Off

Based on a research project at the Pitt-Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford, Christian Thompson’s We Bury Our Own series looks at ritual practice and the possibilities offered by art for a kind of spiritual—if not physical—repatriation.

Thompson is very mindful of the politics and the semiotics of the gaze and in this series he positions non-Indigenous cultural materials and references into a pool of spirituality and ritual, playing with the ideas of heritage, originality and history.

Abdul Abdullah The disaffected by product of the colonies 2014. C-type print on aluminium, 155 x 110 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2015.

Off

Abdul Abdullah’s provocative Siege series features the artist wearing a mask from the most recent Planet Of The Apes film as a potent symbol of ‘Otherness’ and cultural displacement. Abdullah explicitly engages with politics in his practice and has spoken about how the September 11th attacks in particular have influenced his identity as an artist.

[Abdullah] sees his brother, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, as being an artist of the pre-September 11th period and himself as an artist of the post-September 11th period. He was a teenager at that moment, and everything changed for him. Overnight, young Muslim men were seen as terrorists, as a threat, as the quintessential ‘Other.’ When you are a minority, and regardless of who you feel you are, your identity can be determined by external factors, with no control over those perceptions and the ways that you are defined and categorized, and they were for Muslim men all around the globe and continue to be for minorities.

Abdul Abdullah Aussie icons (Kylie, Elle and Lleyton) 2013. Oil on canvas, 91 x 91 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2015.

Off

Taken from Abdul Abdullah’s 2013 series Homeland, the balaclava-clad figure we see in Aussie Icons is a ‘composite face,’ featuring one eye each of Kylie Minogue and Elle MacPherson, alongside the characteristically vocal mouth of Lleyton Hewitt.

The unsettling image that results invites us to think differently about these individual’s place in the national psyche—and to what extent this is shaped by their own Anglo-Saxon heritage.

By using white cultural references and signifiers of beauty we’re asked: what would you do if you were confronted by these people in masks? We look at things differently when it’s white people underneath the masks, but they could still be robbing your home.

Off

Ali grew up hearing from his grandfather the recitation of the Book of Kings (Shahnama), a late 10th century epic poem composed by Firdousi that marks the beginning of modern Persian language. The poem recounts the virtuosity and shortcomings of kings from the beginning of time to the advent of Islam but also of the powerful forces beyond them, epitomised by the divs or daemons. Reflecting on the way his people, the Hazara, have been treated and persecuted since the 1920s, Ali has used the divs from the miniature paintings illustrating the epic as an allegory of the Hazara.

There are layers of histories with people and countries that we in the West tend to skim over, especially in the media. Afghanistan after September 11, for example, is seen as a very two-dimensional space: a space ravaged by war and difficult people. It’s a simple formula of good versus evil, us and them, that helps dehumanise and desensitise. I think for a lot of people who come from countries where conflict has occurred, seeing that conflict portrayed as two dimensional is a very painful thing. We don’t see the beautiful things that happen in Afghanistan, or hear the success stories; or the stories of people not wanting any kind of war. And we don’t consider that people from those places value beauty, history and tradition the way we do; Ali’s works speaks to all these sentiments.

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah Big Moon 2015. Black stain, pencil, ply, 75 x 75 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 2015.

Off

Positioned above the display like the awe-inspiring ‘super moons’ that can be seen when the Earth’s tilt makes them appear low in the sky, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah’s Big Moon brings a sense of universality to the collection of works below it, whilst also carrying its own highly specific cultural meaning.

The moon by Abdul-Rahman Abdullah is referencing the month of Ramadan and for him the full moon represents the halfway point where, as a child, all he had to do was get through another two weeks. What I really love is that he connects the cultural, religious and scientific elements by showing the moon as a celestial object which we all imbue with meaning—a real thing in the universe as opposed to a dreamy kind of cultural symbol.

Harnessing the moon’s cross-cultural significance in this way, its prominence in the space works to unify and balance the disparate and often opposing identities featured in this striking collection of works.

Read more about the AGWA Contemporary collection here. This collection display runs until February 2020.

Abdul-Rahman Abdullah

Contemporary art

AGWA

Card Text

Presenting works from 1970 to today, the AGWA Contemporary collection reveals the wide span of contemporary art practice with its diverse range of media, themes and identities.

Curator Insights with Dunja Rmandić

Contemporary art

Art connects family in a time of COVID-19

Orange title

Challenging Convention

Orange title

Finding solace in the Gallery

Orange title

Human Figure, Myths and Politics

Orange title