Close to here
Michaela Pegum, Close to here, 2016, Photo: Michaela Pegum
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Map reference number: 09
Stephen McLaughlan Gallery
The Nicholas Building, Room 16, Lvl 8, 37 Swanston St, Melbourne 23 August – 9 September
Wed–Fri 1–5pm, Sat 11am–5pm Opening: Thu 31 August, 5–7pm
Artist/s: Michaela Pegum, Gabbee Stolp, Sarah Taylor & Cara Johnson
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Close to here is an exhibition of work by four artists whose practices are ongoing, personal responses to engagements with the natural world.
With two artists working regionally and two from urban environments, Close to here is a distilled view of four individual approaches to exploring and making. Working in contemporary jewellery and object-based practices, the artists engage with site, narrative, embodiment, poetics and time through a range of material practices.
This selection of work casts light on our relationship with the natural world through varying lenses, creating a microcosm of our multifarious dimensions of experience.
With two artists working regionally and two from urban environments, Close to here is a distilled view of four individual approaches to exploring and making. Working in contemporary jewellery and object-based practices, the artists engage with site, narrative, embodiment, poetics and time through a range of material practices.
This selection of work casts light on our relationship with the natural world through varying lenses, creating a microcosm of our multifarious dimensions of experience.
a. Cara Johnson, 30°22’37’’S 144°15’53’’E, 2016, mild steel, 90x50x50mm and Michaela Pegum_Quale III (from The Shape of Night), 2016_velvet, copper, silver, 75x75x60mm. Photo: Jeremy Dillon
b. Gabbee Stolp, Horn with Stingray Skin, 2015_stingray leather, brass, gold leaf_230x80x80mm. Photo: Jeremy Dillon and Sarah Taylor, 2015, wood fired ceramic, bull rush, 120x120x150mm. Photo: Sarah Taylor
b. Gabbee Stolp, Horn with Stingray Skin, 2015_stingray leather, brass, gold leaf_230x80x80mm. Photo: Jeremy Dillon and Sarah Taylor, 2015, wood fired ceramic, bull rush, 120x120x150mm. Photo: Sarah Taylor
About the Artist
With more than fifteen years as a contemporary dancer and choreographer behind her, Michaela Pegum embarked on a Bachelor of Fine Art, Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT, she graduated with first class Honours in 2016. Through phenomenological, poetic and material investigations her work explores experiences that hover on the thresholds of knowledge and mystery. She is particularly interested in the resonance between art object and beholder and the generation of unique materials. Michaela is a current Masters of Fine Art by Research candidate at RMIT. Earlier this year she received the Pieces of Eight award in the Fresh! Graduate Showcase curated by Craft.
Cara Johnson completed her Honours (first class) within a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University in 2016. Her practice is concerned with fragility and preciousness in nature, while looking to address the presence of human impact on the landscape. Recently Johnson exhibited at ANCA Gallery in Canberra and Gray Street Workshop in Adelaide, and has work currently represented at CODA Museum in The Netherlands. Early 2017 she was invited to take part in the Fresh! curated show at Craft, and received the Sofitel Award. Cara resides in the Otways in southwest Victoria and is current research candidate at RMIT.
Gabbee Stolp is a Hobart born visual artist whose work involves a philosophical exploration of spirituality, mythology and human connectedness with the natural world, together with a belief in the inseparability of life and death. Using materials thoughtfully sourced from the lives of animals, Gabbee works with small object and jewellery making in order to provoke ideas of the biological and the metaphysical and to inspire a connection with nature through art. Gabbee currently resides in Melbourne and has recently completed Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) with Honours (First Class) at RMIT University.
Sarah Taylor’s creative practice is reflected in ceramics and performative installation. The work appears to be a fragment of a creative process and is exhibited with areas of empty space, metaphorical or physical. Taylor questions the relationship that humans have with the rest of nature in a western cultural context. In association to this question her recent work demonstrates an alternative grief or death dialogue. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from RMIT University and now resides in rural/forested Victoria.
With more than fifteen years as a contemporary dancer and choreographer behind her, Michaela Pegum embarked on a Bachelor of Fine Art, Gold and Silversmithing at RMIT, she graduated with first class Honours in 2016. Through phenomenological, poetic and material investigations her work explores experiences that hover on the thresholds of knowledge and mystery. She is particularly interested in the resonance between art object and beholder and the generation of unique materials. Michaela is a current Masters of Fine Art by Research candidate at RMIT. Earlier this year she received the Pieces of Eight award in the Fresh! Graduate Showcase curated by Craft.
Cara Johnson completed her Honours (first class) within a Bachelor of Fine Art at RMIT University in 2016. Her practice is concerned with fragility and preciousness in nature, while looking to address the presence of human impact on the landscape. Recently Johnson exhibited at ANCA Gallery in Canberra and Gray Street Workshop in Adelaide, and has work currently represented at CODA Museum in The Netherlands. Early 2017 she was invited to take part in the Fresh! curated show at Craft, and received the Sofitel Award. Cara resides in the Otways in southwest Victoria and is current research candidate at RMIT.
Gabbee Stolp is a Hobart born visual artist whose work involves a philosophical exploration of spirituality, mythology and human connectedness with the natural world, together with a belief in the inseparability of life and death. Using materials thoughtfully sourced from the lives of animals, Gabbee works with small object and jewellery making in order to provoke ideas of the biological and the metaphysical and to inspire a connection with nature through art. Gabbee currently resides in Melbourne and has recently completed Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) with Honours (First Class) at RMIT University.
Sarah Taylor’s creative practice is reflected in ceramics and performative installation. The work appears to be a fragment of a creative process and is exhibited with areas of empty space, metaphorical or physical. Taylor questions the relationship that humans have with the rest of nature in a western cultural context. In association to this question her recent work demonstrates an alternative grief or death dialogue. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from RMIT University and now resides in rural/forested Victoria.
