GRACIA + LOUISE

ACT XII: NEW WORKS ON PAPER
Catalogue essay

Raymond Arnold, Jon Campbell, Gunter Christman, Jazmina Cininas, Lesley Duxbury, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Mitch Lang, Noel McKenna, Deborah Paauwe, George Popperwell, Bernhard Sachs, Hossein Valamanesh

George Adams Gallery, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne
UTS gallery, University of Technology, Sydney
Artspace, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide

Gracia Haby and Louise Jennison have worked collaboratively for the past five years, using paper as their primary medium. From a series of carefully constructed, limited edition artists' books through to works on and with paper, their intimate art pieces record, deconstruct and respond to experiences in various countries and varying circumstances.

Their two most recent artists' books depict their shared love of travel, both real and imagined. Their work Melbourne in 31 days presents a tale told in unnumbered pages. Housed in a delicately constructed straw board box, it comprises two volumes. the first, a manuscript by Jennison in a continuous stream, chronicles the activities of one month. It opens with waking on the first day and concludes with going to bed one month later. The second volume, an assemblage of ephemera acquired in the same month - a ticket stub, a letter extract, a receipt, a menu card - are mementos held onto, small visual clues of days past serving as memory cues.

30 days in Vienna, bound by the artists with an exposed spine and square knot binding technique learnt in Switzerland, combines interpretive text by Haby with images, both of which are woven through collaged layers.

These exquisite volumes command quiet contemplation. Their primary concern is the paradox of preserving the ephemeral. They capture ordinary moments, elevating the significance of everyday experience.

While the books attempt to preserve time, two lithographic offset prints, The plight of the birds and The tears of the elephant, have no tangible reference points. They create whimsical landscapes with ambiguous narratives open to many levels of interpretation. Drawing from a history of imaginary voyages, these works engage the senses and create a warm tension.

For Haby and Jennison, life and art nourish each other. Their travels provide inspiration and content, and threads of their art-making experience are woven into their stories. Though this may not be a conscious pursuit, the interdependence of art and life is an emerging theme in their recent body of work. The artists' journey is compelling.

Haby and Jennison are Fine Arts graduates of RMIT (Haby with Honours) and have exhibited together locally and abroad. They were awarded the Australia Council for the Arts, New Work for Emerging Artists grant in 2000 and the Freedman Foundation Travelling Scholarship for Emerging Artists in 2002. They are represented in the collection of the State Library of Victoria and in private collections.

Catalogue essay
Marita Smith