2021 STUDIO WORK -TURF - reconsidering grasslands - Paris re-occuring

Turf has been the most used medium in landscaping since the 16th Century. From the Zoysia sodding fields of Japan to the privately owned Chamomile fields of France to the modern parklands and sport grounds used as civic community space.

The Turf Series stems from the questioning of human obsession to control and own the natural world. I see the lawn as signifying colonial acquisition, of privilege and a problematic heritage that still holds root. It is a reminder of western pastural foundations, aristocratical dominion and in modern times an unobtainable dream for the next generation.

After returning from my residency in Paris in January 2020 I became obsessed with grass as a concept. I had for years had a personal mowing addiction in my little back garden spending countless hours sowing and tending to its thirsty needs. During lockdown I started planting grass in buckets confining and controlling its growth. My son cared for these tufts during his covid confinement and I hoped it created a sense of nature in his cement cage.

In the 16th century the cultivation of landscape through the use of lawn was fashionable by wealthy land owners in France and England manufactured stretches or land to resembled glades. A lawn was a mark of stature and wealth, not used for food or dwellings this lands pure purpose was for frivolous adornment.

Colonialism saw grasses which were more favourable for their imported stock exported and taken around the world without care or thought of the destruction of endemic grasslands.

The 19th century term park was used to describe acres of lawn which eventually becoming public areas, grass migrated from these public spaces back to private yards where households could create their own connection to nature and showcase their own stature of ownership. Think the 50’s “perfect” nuclear family image with the lawn out the front and the victor mowers adds synonyms on weekend home ownership duties.

The unachievable plastic ideal of the cultivated 1950’s front lawn could now represent the unobtainable and unrealistic expectations of and on our current generation… not only the dated “ideal” family unit but in home ownership in general especially in the current climate…,….

Moving in a space that is somewhere between ghetto and the real world, the student artist creates in a bubble, sheltered from the outside by the safety net of the institution. Building upon the base of theory taught in these institutions, the 'pre-emerging' artist is faced with the dilemma of where their work fits in relation to an historical notion of art making, while also considering how it becomes the art of the future. As disparate art forms merge, established structures shift in a constant flux and form new spaces in which to create. Questions arise as to what has come before, the world in which we live and the technologies we have at our disposal.

This is the Peripheral Village, a place that is intimately disconnected from the art world.

The Peripheral Village is a space for these disparate art forms to congregate, a miscellany of modern art mutants that are products of an amalgamation of the art of the past hundred or so years. From boldly colourful abstracts that reference built and natural environments to black and white photographs of gossamer fabrics that explore feminine interpretations of identity, the included works each embody the interests and concerns of student artists at this time. Operating with a renewed interest in modernist art, but with the advantage of postmodernist strategies, painters become sculptors, musicians create video work and animation is presented as a painting in a gallery. There is no hierarchy between art forms, and no distinction between the now outmoded concepts of high and low art that fuelled the utopianism of Modernism.

Presented as a whole, rather than as singular works attributable to singular artists, Peripheral Village is a jumble of imagery and objects that reflect the constant stream of information we are faced with in the contemporary world. The exhibition is intended as a singular statement about the world in which we live and make art. As such, it is a reflection on the tentative reality that faces the 'pre-emerging' artist as we move into a new stage of professionalism.

http://www.castgallery.org/

2022 STUDIO WORK - TOOLS OF DOMESTICITY - gender roles - covid questions

2021 STUDIO WORK -TURF - reconsidering grasslands - Paris re-occuring

2020 MEDIAN24 MERCURY BUILDING HOBART

2020 GOOD GRIEF STUDIOS HOBART

2020 STUDIO WORKS - post paris musings

2020 installation support and roofline design for La more mi troverà vivo - Contemporary Art Tasmania - Artist - Mat Ward

2019 PROOFSPACE

2018 BEYOND THE FIELD STILL -

CONTEMPORARY ART TASMANIA

2016 - NEW WORKS - THE RAT PALACE - HOBART

2006 Peripheral Village - CAST Gallery - November

Carolyn acknowledges the muwinina and palawa traditional owners of the land where she lives and works and pays respect to her elders past, present and emerging and recognise today's Tasmanian Aboriginal families as custodians of lutruwita / Tasmania.