2001
- A DOMESTIC ODYSSEY
Louise
jennison
Wednesday 21st February - Saturday 10th March, 2001
Opening Tuesday 20th February, 6-8pm
MASS gallery
142 Queens Parade, North Fitzroy
2001
- a domestic odyssey serves as a pun on all predictions of the 21st
century being one of technological advances that would have us flying
our own spaceships and being masters of robots who would vacuum our
houses and pour our cocktails, as predicted in the last century. Though
technology is a major part of our 21st century lives, domestic intimacy,
personal relationships, and human emotion has not yet been erased
- Louise Jennison 2001
2001
- A Domestic Odyssey is a suspended moment ... a slice of time
that has captured a moment in itself. Through the use of visual poetics
and watercolour, Louise Jennison has utilised various mediums by removing
them for their original high art appeal and utilising them
in a momentary context. Through this she has created a transient
portrait of domestic life.
This exhibition captures the spirit of a time, a place, an air of circumstance
in a type of wunderkamma space - where the viewer is invited
to share and perhaps compare their domestic realm in an abstraction
of the human condition. In the tradition of Fluxus, Jennison dissolves
the boundaries held between art and life, in 5 simple conceptual possibilities.
One hour, one day & one week are transcriptions of events written
directly onto the gallery's walls. This piece creates the action & momentum,
which binds the domestic odyssey and allows its progression into the
ritual of the everyday.
List of everything in our home, is a catalogue of domestic possessions.
The initial impression that this piece conjures is that of one of a
fastidious documentation categorised by object, written densely on water
paper. However, under closer examination, the list is documented straight
from the artist's perception of the object, whilst being mechanical
in its execution With this, the viewer is transported into artist's
domestic space. The objects are listed in terms of their individual
appeal, not by their material or usage. In turn, List of everything
in our home moves from a list of objects, to a catalogue of the
subconscious relationship the owner has with that object - all those
bits and pieces that makes a house into a home. The viewer is transported
into the artist's space. As if you are visiting the artist's house for
the first time and asked in retrospect what you may remember seeing.
Transcriptions of my travel journal is a symbol of memories
which are held in a domestic space ... all those things taken from life
and preserved into a certain significance through the act of keeping
a diary - a personal history that is reflected upon in the familiarity
of domesticity. As this 'Hog Log' is a travel diary of Jennison's journey
to Portugal, the domestic space is reconfirmed ... no matter how far
you can travel, in terms of livability the homes provides a classic
where comparisons are drawn that expose the human condition.
20.12.00 - 18.02.01 is a series of 100 water colour paintings
depicting scenes of the domestic odyssey - housework, the cats, the
dog, the visitors, the outings, the family ... with all their idiosyncrasies.
This piece reconfirms the transcentual ritual of the domestic realm
... every moment no matter how mundane it seems is integral to the existence
of the domestic system. A system which would have been predicted as
defuctorary by 2001 - A Space Odyssey.
Gracie's dreams transcribed like a List of everything in
our home, communicates as another visual poetic. Jennison has transcribed
Gracia's dreams from a dictaphone into densely written text with the
precursory impression being that of fastidiousness, almost mechanical
in its precision. However this effect of precision counteracts the lucid
and the all to human nature of the dialogue.
Good morning, I had some quite weird
dreams ... guinea pig swimming in turbulent water ... um he was really
tall, sort of middle aged, albino man, he stepped out and scared me
...I must have lagged behind.
All those external influences that are experienced on a day to day level,
most particularly through the media, feed the subconscious and are exposed
through a dream. The domestic space is a place where these fragments
of our subconscious are released and at times realised.
Jennison's aim was to portray document the daily frivolity and joy of
one's private life ... an intimacy and candid honesty (which) would
reveal domestic ritual and comfort as a celebration of all that is to
be human. Louise Jennison has exposed her domestic realm into a
series of idiosyncrasies, which transports the viewer beyond her work.
This sectional view holds the momentum of the past, distils it in
a moment to communicate a consensus of its fragility and its certainty.
... Due to the spread of mass literacy,
to television and the transistor radio, our sensitivities have changed.
The very complexity of this impact gives us a taste for simplicity,
for an art which is based on the underlying images that an artist has
always used to make his point ... We are asking for a new way of looking
at things, but more totally, since we are more impatient and more anxious
to go to the basic images. This explains the impact of Happenings, event
pieces, mixed media films. We do not ask any more to speak magnificently
or taking arms against a sea of troubles, we want to see it done. The
art which most directly does this is the one which allows this immediacy,
with a minimum of distractions ...
Dick Higgins, extract from his Statement on Intermedia,
New York, 3 August 1966
Emma Leigh Winterburn, 2001
