Portraiture - or not
House Conspiracy presents this showcase of artworks that explore and push the boundaries of portraiture, an elusive genre through which artists seek to represent self or another, embracing the internal and external qualities of the subject.
For this showcase, the current cycle of artists have produced works in a range of media including sculpture, installation, paper, painting and concrete.
Artist in residence Mark du Potiers will take over the internal space of the house to immerse the audience in installations that explore cultural identities and cultural anxieties. Imbuing artworks with a sense of fun, Mark seeks to soften heavy themes without diluting the importance of concept and meaning.
Partner artist Tom Broadhurst will exhibit photographic collage works that continue his investigation into the expectations of historical narrative and the implications of the idealised Australian masculine archetype.
Partner artist Julia Vanderbyl employs the more traditional medium of painting to create portraits that present various counter-gazes, with a focus on individual storytelling and negotiated identities.
SHOWCASE DOCUMENTATION
Click through to view event and artwork documentation
Photos by Joseph Lynch, Perception Productions
Reflections on the exhibition
Words by Isabella Baker
Houses are mysterious emotionally loaded places. Sometimes they can be a reflection of who we are and what we value. Other times we can feel excluded or unsafe. Houses are boundaries between the outside and inside world. One particularly curious dwelling is the artist-run-space House Conspiracy, home to artist residencies, performances, talks and exhibitions. It supports local contemporary artists by giving them a space to create and connect with other creatives.
In 2000, the house was located right between a housing development zone to build apartments next to West End Coles. Despite pressure to sell, the owners refused. In a compromise, the Queenslander was painted the same off-green colour as the apartment buildings between which it is sandwiched so that it looks like it was preserved as part of the original design rather than survived despite the original design.
The site of House Conspiracy continues the history of defiance and creativity. Conspiracy refers to the action of plotting a secret plan with others. Past exhibitions demonstrate the actioning of conspiracy, which is collaborative by nature… secret in content. The large walls in the garden of the Queenslander concentrate the creative energy inwards creating a special vortex. House Conspiracy is a preserved piece of Brisbane history pre-high-rise, and a place where artists come to plot.
The exhibition Portait – or not highlights works by artists who articulate the complexity of the domestic space. The installations, paintings, sculptures and murals are created in response to the environment but they are also a window in, a reflection, a portrait of the artist within the space.
Tom Broadhurst’s artworks engage with the structures of the garage – the low hanging beams, cool concrete and white picket fence. Small paintings of interior spaces cling to the diagonal white picket fence. A painting on sheer textile hangs between the low beams of the garage. A concrete sculpture of a head wearing a swimming cap and goggles looks as if it might crumble into the unforgiving concrete ground. Broadhurst’s artworks are small and subtle – framed paintings of abstract interiors and satirical pop culture figures. As you exit out of the garage and into the backyard, Julia Vanderbyl’s life drawing paintings are displayed on easels in a circle around the backyard. They invite the viewer to enter into personal aspects of the artist and subject, as well as provide a general statement about the complexity of the theme i.e. questioning what is a portrait? The artworks are in a style of intimate portraiture, where attention is focused on close observations of the individual. However, the placement of the works outside in a backyard surrounded by high walls of the next- door apartments gives a sense of strained intimacy. Vanderbyl’s works are stuck in a liminal state between the interior and exterior. What are they revealing and what are they concealing?
A mural by Lisa Kelly occupies the high green wall that separates the house from the apartments next door. The mural appears as a window into the magical and mysterious elements of the house. In the painting a figure holds a mirror in front of their face. The figure may be looking into their reflection, but from our perspective, the view of their face is hidden. Two tigers sit in front of the figure, looking out as if searching for danger. The tigers seem to denote power, and could be an emblem for strength, ferocity and wisdom.
Upstairs, Mark du Potier’s artworks are positioned in the heart of the home. They are located throughout the kitchen, bathroom, hallway, lounge room and bedroom. This part of the exhibition is called Squatters’ Rights, which was an outcome of the artist’s residency. Du Potier explores the psychological complexities apparent in feeling belonging in residence. In the artist’s words, ‘a house doesn’t make a home’. In du Potier’s work, he examines the themes of want, wont, identity, sexuality and suffering. These large themes are offered in an abstract form, perhaps referring to the deconstructed nature of self. How much do these issues enter into the portrait of our self and our identity? Do places like homes help us to heal from issues in the world that impact on our internal state of who we are? Or do they carry more history and more complications that we take with us.
MEET THE ARTISTS!
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: MARK DU POTIERS
Mark du Potiers is an Australian artist with Chinese heritage, whose interdisciplinary sculptural work examines cultural identities and draws from his experiences and anxieties growing up as a non-white person in contemporary Australia. Mark’s practice explores notions of privilege, assumption, stereotyping and ideals of value and beauty within a society permeated by colonialism and eurocentrism. His work also references queerness and its additional complexities when viewed through a multicultural lens. Mark has exhibited through Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art, in spaces across south-east Queensland, and Kulin Nation/Melbourne. In 2018 he was an exhibiting finalist in Midsumma Festival’s Midsumma Australia Post Art Prize.
PARTNER ARTIST: TOM BROADHURST
Tom is a multi-media photographic artist and recent Honours graduate from Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Tom is interested in the implications of historical narrative for future projections and the anxieties that arise from comparing the ideals of this narrative and the actuality of day-to-day experience. Employing an auto-ethnographic approach through the lens of the everyday, Tom explores the space between contemporary ontology and the idealisms of the ’blueprint’ implied by historical narrative.
PARTNER ARTIST: JULIA VENDERBYL
Julia Vanderbyl lives and works in Byron Bay, NSW and in West End, QLD. In her work, she draws on global concerns and personal grief to focus on themes of individual storytelling and identity negotiated within existing and imagined environments and constraints. Julia has participated in numerous group exhibitions; her work can be viewed in public spaces in the Byron Shire and in private collections in Australia and abroad.
WALL MURAL ARTIST: LISA KELLY
Lisa Tran Kelly is a multidisciplinary Vietnamese-Australian artist with a background in Psychology. While she is currently studying a Masters in Social Work, she is passionate about arts practice and has held art workshops, worked as a freelance artist and exhibited work in Brisbane throughout both her social science degrees. Drawing from her studies, her artistic practice gravitates towards themes of nature and humanity and attempts to discuss the intersection of art, mental health, and recovery. Her works feature recurring elements representative of the power in the female form, cycles of the moon and the ebb and flow of nature's pace. Her mediums include pencil, acrylics and gold leaf and span across mural work and illustration.
CREDITS:
Click on Names for Profiles
Artist in Residence: Mark du Potiers
Partner Artist: Julia Vanderbyl
Partner Artist: Tom Broadhurst
Featured Artist: Lisa Kelly
Showcase Writer: Isabella Baker
Creative Director: Ellie-Lea Jansson
Documentation Photography: Joseph Lynch
Production team: Angela Timbs