Shade or Shadow Exhibition

Shade or

Shadow 

An exhibition of works from the last 18 months by

Jennifer McElwee 

August 3rd – 17th

Opening: Friday August 3rd 2012, 6 – 8pm

Level 1, 64 Little Malop Street, Geelong Tuesday- Friday 11am – 4pm 

Tweet, Harbinger Tweet

Exhibition: Abridged

Students from the Bachelor of Visual Arts held an exhibition on the bridge linking buildings at the Gordon. The exhibition explored mans impact on nature. I exhibited 3 works, Forest Suburbia, Breath and Harbinger Tweet.

Tweet, Harbinger Tweet

har·bin·ger  n.

One that indicates or foreshadows what is to come; a forerunner.

tweet  n.

1. a chirping sound, as of a young or small bird.

2. Digital Technology. a short message posted on the Twitter web site.

Canaries were used in coal mines to detect methane and carbon monoxide and the dangerous build up of colourless, odourless and tasteless gases. The miners would bring the canary into the mine in a small cage. While the canary was whistling and alive, the air was suitable for the miners to breath. The canaries provided a warning.

Like the canary in the coal mine, Australians native birds are a harbinger, an indication of the health of our environment. They are affected by physical and chemical impacts on their ecosystems.

When communities of birds change in composition or numbers, it is usually the result of ecological change.

The quantity and variety of birdlife is reliant on habitat.

Scientists over recent years have noticed that small birds are disappearing from our backyards as the biodiversity of plant species is being reduced.

Birds’ eggs absorb toxic industrial pollutants indicating the level of toxins in the environment; again providing a warning.

Nine species of Australia’s birds have become extinct since European settlement and at least 15 subspecies have also become extinct in that time. Many others are threatened.

‘Harbinger Tweet’- The birds in the postcard cages are representations of small birds found in Victoria. The two sided art works are hung by thread with swivels to move with the airflow. The silhouette side uses the postcard image to add colour, symbols and text. There is one empty cage representing extinct birds. The yellow canary in the black cage is a traditional harbinger symbol of warning. These colours are used in today’s society as a hazard sign.

An excellent App is available for mobile phones. It will identify a bird by the birdsong. Conserving birds and their habitat allows this app to be functional. The alternative is viewing birds through wire or worse through archives.

Birdsong is precious. Let the tweets come from our gardens and not only from our mobile phones.

Exhibition: Abridged

Students from the Bachelor of Visual Arts held an exhibition on the bridge linking buildings at the Gordon. The exhibition explored mans impact on nature. I exhibited 3 works, Forest Suburbia, Breath and Harbinger Tweet.

BREATH

BREATH

The bridge linking these buildings straddles the railway line. Each day many trains rattle there way under the bridge pulled by diesel engines. The residue of the fumes from these engines can be seen on the outside structure of the bridge and can be smelt as they waft up from the tracks. These fumes are not only unpleasant but are toxic and very dangerous in large measure.

Our Australian skies over all are relatively clean. But in other countries where there are fewer regulations, air quality has enormous impact and ramifications. China is home to 16 of the worlds worst air polluted cities. Coal has been the main reason. China has large deposits of coal and most is of the high sulpher variety, resulting in extensive air pollution. (Interestingly another name for sulpher is brimstone.) The skies in industrial areas are so choked by the factory fumes that the horizon is never seen. An estimated 400,000 premature deaths a year are caused by respiratory diseases. 600,000 Chinese coal miners suffer from black lung increasing by 70,000 each year.

Tens of thousands of Chinas’ coalmines are run by small unscrupulous operators who avoid air quality laws and safety regulations through the corruption of local bureaucrats. One mine owner even cut a hole in the Great Wall to avoid paying road tolls.

Consumption of goods has increased in the western world largely due to the cheap production of those goods in China. The cheap energy from coal has an expensive outcome in air quality and those breathing it.

‘Breath’ -There is a narrow gap above the perspex window allowing air to flow from outside. Three heads hang over this gap. They are androgynous and green representing no particular race, representing all. They are upside down, vulnerable and powerless. They move and breathe with the little movement of air from the outside and the push and pull from people walking by.

Lamp Black, soot, covers the chests of the three heads. The label on the jar of Lamp Black used, ironically has a large black X with a warning ‘Not to be inhaled’. Were the workers producing this substance given such a warning?

Appreciate breath. Take a deep breath.

Exhibition - Abridged

Students from the Bachelor of Visual Arts held an exhibition on the bridge linking buildings at the Gordon. The exhibition explored mans impact on nature.
I exhibited three works. Forest Suburbia, Breath and Harbinger Tweet. 

FOREST SUBURBIA

FOREST SUBURBIA

Over the last decade the skyline has changed in the street where I live as in many other older suburbs.

Homes on large blocks with their established gardens and trees have been bulldozed, completely razed, and in just a few days.

The builders arrive and the matching townhouses are built. They are jutted together with common concrete drives and tiny spaces for gardens. Sometimes there is grass and sometimes the grass is artificial, but always there is no room for trees.

Property developers are making maximum profit from the lack of foresight of urban planners.

Trees have benefits. They cool the suburbs, provide shade for homes, absorb carbon thus cleaning the air we breathe. Trees are a habitat for birds and other wildlife. Trees add beauty, give privacy, softening a harsh skyline, and ironically increase the value of property.

When trees are taken away privacy is lost and the blinds come down. With no yard to play in the TV goes on. With no shade the house gets hotter and the air conditioner goes on. And the birds move away because their habitat is gone.

‘Forest Suburbia’ depicts the tall trees being felled by the chain saw leaving a skyline of power poles and power lines, TV antennas and ventilation pipes. Phthalo Green is a pigment made through a synthetic chemical process and it is this artificial color that is used for the sky silhouetting the artificial forest.

Graphite, charcoal synthetic polymer on brown paper.
Triptych 1500x100cm

Walking man

These drawings  explore shadows and viewing from an elevation. 
These studies are from photos I have taken at Southern Cross Station, looking down on the commuters. 

The shadows take on a new form  when they become the focus.

Drawing the same image on wood gives a different atmosphere.

Silver Spoons

In our drawing class we learnt the technique of burnishing using the back of a silver spoon. My endeavours were not very successful , so I decided to draw the spoons instead.

Journal Entry. Graphite and oil on paper. 15 x 21cm

Graphite and oil on paper. 21 x 30cm

Silver Falling, Charcoal and graphite on paper 420 x 594 mm

I began drawing this at the time of the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan.

 In each spoon is the reflection of the owner.

Charcoal and pastel on paper, 420 x 594mm

Suspension File Trees

These drawings were created after a trip north along the Hume. Just north of Albury were some bare paddocks where the stubble had been burnt with a few trees on the the crest of the hill.
These were drawn on green suspension files, an interesting colour as a ground.


Charcoal, pigments, lamp black, medium on card (suspension file)
each 36 x 46 cm