Behind the scenes

Background This research investigates the dynamics and fragility of the natural world, environmental, social, and feminist concerns, expressed as painting. Speculative and experimental, ‘Behind the scenes’ 2019 considers how feminist strategies, and material techniques apparent in the woven textiles of key minimalist fibre artists and sculptors, Lenore Tawney, Mrinalini Mukherjee and Ruth Asawa, can pertain to contemporary painting. This research asks how contemporary painting can operate as both landscape and abstraction to convey notions of temporality, and transformation. Contribution ‘Behind the scenes’ is a painting constructed from a membrane of ‘woven’ paint adhered to a canvas support. In researching the potential for acrylic paint to approximate the malleable characteristics of woven fabric, I discovered I could blur the line between the natural (the artists hand) and the artificial, resulting in a complex hybrid zone of texture, surface, and materiality. This new knowledge has also led to significant conceptual and technical breakthroughs in my subsequent paintings. Significance My painting was esteemed as one of 28 finalists (from 600+ entries) selected for the Geelong Contemporary Prize, recognized as showcasing the ‘diversity and excellence of Australian contemporary painting practice’, judges included eminent curators and Art Historians, Grazia Gunn and Jenepher Duncan, alongside Jason Smith, CEO and Director, Geelong Gallery. Visited by 5,905 (COVID-19 effected), a further 2,400 virtual views: 3 National newspaper articles, 19 online articles and listings and extensive social media. My work appeared alongside paintings by significant Australian artists such as Diena Georgetti, Caroline Eskdale, Jennifer Mills, Greg Creek and Jenny Watson.