Training, Walking and Drawing
Fehily Contemporary is privileged to present Training, Walking and Drawing, Angela Ellsworth’s first solo exhibition in Australia. Following on from the Phoenix-based artist’s breathtaking bonnets at the 2010 Sydney Biennale, this exhibition will feature a selection of her drawings. Continuing along the threads woven throughout her multi-disciplinary practice, these drawings examine the inherent beauty and strength that emerges when traversing life’s obstacles. For the first time at Fehily Contemporary, the gallery will be used as a studio with Angela inviting visitors to become engaged with her practise. Training, Walking and Drawing uses the human body as a point of departure for an exploration of creativity, memory and experience. Parallels emerge between art and exercise as the repeated motions of graphite-attached limbs etch out a drawing on paper. Here, both art and exercise slowly inch their way towards an unattainable perfection. A holistic portrait of the experience of walking is shown in the methodical tracing of a route as it is interspersed with the unexpected detours and tangential narratives that erupt along the way. Ellsworth’s drawings show us that the body is not just a lump of mass hurtling through space, but rather a force replete with meaning, forever notching out marks on the world around it. From 3 to 6 August and 10 to 12 August, Ellsworth will be working in the gallery space, inviting visitors to take her for walks and tell her something special about the area, a street, a tree or a building. These walks and the stories they uncover will inform her drawings as they unfold, blurring the boundary between spectator and participant and offering a chance to participate in Ellsworth’s unique process. For Ellsworth, drawing is more than mere representation – it is a way of capturing and interpreting life’s vignettes and elucidating associations with people and places. |
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