Michelle Caithness Michelle Caithness Michelle Caithness
Clive Murray-White /
Michelle Caithness: a Collaboration
This is an exhibition of drawing and sculpture by two
artists who have discovered that they share an almost identical set of artistic
values.
Clive makes marble sculptures about or based on Michelle
whilst Michelle draws Clive in his studio making the sculptures of her. Both
ask numerous questions about the evolution of portraiture and neither pressures
the other to create flattering “realistic” representations.
Portraiture, of any kind, is inevitably collaborative and
possibly invasive but when two artists are both artist and subject, things can
become doubly interesting. In this case each has progressively encouraged the
other to accept new freedoms and experiment with the intention of getting
closer to his or her true expressive potential.
Simon Gregg, Curator Gippsland Art Gallery, opens the exhibition.
Installation view
Installation view
Michelle Caithness
I have never considered myself to be a portrait artist, having
only produced two such works in my life. Given the opportunity to draw Clive at
Cowwarr in 2016 I was confronted with the reality of a sitter and the inherent
formal obligations of the process.
A traditional approach to the task pulled me into using old
art habits: The classical frontal or three quarter pose and a search for
’likeness’, both fell short of revealing Clive in context.
A person as a subject is made of many things. The challenge
of portraiture became fresh and exciting when the three dimensional nature of
artist making sculpture, within an architectural setting, loomed as a distinct
possibility.
My subject lives and
breathes in a spectacular setting, with sculptures and lumps of stone, within an
illuminating landscape.
Installation view
Observing the sculptor working in his studio with works
completed, works in progress and amongst the tools and detritus of creation,
presented intriguing compositional opportunities.
Michelle Caithness Spring Studio: Number One
Clive’s physical characteristics became animated through the
repetitive act of working and contemplation.
The relationship of sculpture to drawing through the act of
mark making on surfaces and the play of light on stone led me to new exciting
formal discoveries with charcoal on rough paper.
Michelle Caithness Spring Studio: Number Two
Clive in his studio held all of the information I needed.
His process of discovery mirrored my own need for formal invention. I became
free to interpret the notion of portraiture in my own way.
Michelle Caithness Summer Studio: Number Two
Clive Murray-White
Michelle has a face shape that is deeply etched into my
subconscious. For at least the past 25 years whenever I doodle this has been
the face I draw. To me finding the living version just seems like a moment of
well-deserved fate. I
can draw a recognisable representation of her in a matter of seconds. This
tempted me to make my first sculpture of her somewhere between a relief and a
drawing on stone that concentrated more on how I perceive her than being
chained to the restrictions of slavish representation.
Clive Murray-White Michelle One
Whilst that little work, Michelle
1, is most definitely recognisable as one of mine it blasted through some self-imposed
restrictions on what I would or would not allow myself to do.
Clive Murray-White Michelle Five
The fact that
Michelle could see and appreciate this liberated me to push my expressive and
formal boundaries into corners I have not dared to fully explore before.
Clive Murray-White Michelle Three
Each sculpture goes through a series of approximations from
roughing out to finishing. Each tool
leaves graphic evidence of its work. Up until now I would hurry through the
initial activities and rush towards a finish.
I now stop, even in the very
early stages, to thoroughly assess what may be there in case it could be expressively
useful.
Michelle Seven
This simple procedure, discovered while making the Michelle heads, seems, from my perspective, to have added a new vitality to my work.
Michelle Caithness Winter Studio: Number One
Installation view
Michelle Caithness Summer Studio: Number One
Clive Murray-White / Michelle Caithness: a Collaboration runs until May 1 2017 at the Cowwarr Art Space but during its 2 month exhibition period the collaboration hasn't stood still!
Michelle seen here with Soula Mantalvanos installing the second version of the exhibition at the Queenslcliff Gallery and Workshop, for her residency during the Streeton Prints exhibition. And yet another version of the collaboration will be going to the Charles Nodrum Gallery in Richmond, Melbourne in September.
And back in Cowwarr, Michelle Eight has been completed, it represents the first sculpture that we both worked on together with Michelle drawing on it to suggest changes. This spurred us on with the start of Michelle Nine to both work on the actual carving together.
Michelle gets stuck into her hair!!!
its not all hard grind, see mugs of tea and then a cold one at the end of the day