Bird

BACKGROUND This visual art exhibition includes painting, sculpture, costume design and ceramics, separate works but joined in their embodiment of the idea or symbolic nature of ‘bird’. It enacts a response to the idea of the ‘nest’ as an organising principle, informed by theories of childhood play, such as those by Friedrich Froebel. These were important to Bauhaus philosophies and artists such as Alma Siedhoff-Buscher, whose 1920s modular building blocks I draw from directly, while also relating to current influential approaches to education such as Nato Thompson’s alternative art school. My research focused on asking whether geometry is something innate that shapes us or something we have devised to shape our world. The project extends ideas explored in collaborative work with artist Justene Williams and art historians Dr Ann Stephen and Prof. Susan Best for the Bauhaus Now! exhibition at Buxton Contemporary in 2019. CONTRIBUTION In researching whether geometry and symmetry are colonising principles or ordering principles I expanded the field by creating depths and voids – spaces within the tight geometric designs/patterns of sculpture and painting – that activated the sense of another dimension beyond the geometry. Through an interdisciplinary installation of over 16 works I was able to question the architectural/industrial aspects of the Bauhaus and its legacy and acknowledge its occult dimensions, which, although a historical reality, is less often discussed. This opens the way for imaginative uses of geometry of the kind natural to childhood and vital to art practice. SIGNIFICANCE As the exhibition was held in lockdown, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery actively promoted the event through its international network via its website, social media, YouTube and Zoom platforms. The exhibition was featured in Art Guide Australia (interview), Art Collector Magazine (text by Edward Colless) and Artist Profile Magazine issue 55.