FRISSON @ GRAYDON

One Oil on linen 90 x 200 cm 2009

FRISSON UPDATE

Readers of my BLOG will know I have been working towards my solo show Frisson for quite some time. My last solo exhibition Prayers For The Planet was in October 2007. I just love the word frisson...don't you? I wrote an open ended 'recipe' for a frisson a few posts ago. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/01/feeling-frisson.html

Readers will also know that due to circumstances beyond my control I had to cancel Frisson at the gallery where I had to exhibit. BUT, GOOD NEWS! I am very excited, because FRISSON will now be exhibited at Graydon Gallery, in New Farm, Brisbane from 16-28 March, open daily 10am -6 pm. The opening will be Thursday 18 March from 5.30-8 pm. Everything is falling into place really well, and I have already received some fantastic support and encouragement.

The exhibition will be opened by Dr. Christine Dauber PhD, B.A, B.A Honours [Art History] University of Queensland. I am thrilled about this. She has known of my work for many years and over this time has penetrated its essence. As she says, It must first be understood that Brimblecombe–Fox is not so much concerned with landscape painting per se, but in a Warburgian sense, searches for the universal connections, or common ground between people, races and religions. Thus, she uses the “tree of life” or “tree of knowledge” as a repetitive motif and in so doing, deploys its spiritual associations as a global referent.

The image I am using on the invitation and other promo material is the image above: ONE oil on linen 90 x 200 cm. I have previously written abut this painting on my BLOG. Here's the link
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2009/07/one.html

HOPE
I am working on a painting at the moment and my ideas have revolved around issues of water and rain plus what they represent at emotional and even spiritual levels. Regular readers will know that water is of great interest to me and that it has been a sub theme within my broader interests in perspective, distance and the space between the micro/local and macro/global. Overarching all of this is my compulsion to explore the potential of archetypes to perhaps reveal universal connections that mean something to us in the 21st century.

This new painting which I am currently working on, is essentially about hope. I am calling it 'Hope In The Distance' because it is at first glance a painting of strips of rain at the horizon. When I lived in Western Queensland, strips of rain would appear on distant horizons, often cruelly tantalising us with the potential for much needed rain. But, horizons, as metaphors for our lives cascade into so much possibility, because as I have written before, horizons can be both close and far. Our eyes, of eye ball and pupil, see horizons as existing in the far distance, but our eyes trick us, because we are essentially always present upon horizons which exist at all universal and nano distances around us. Our mind's eye can 'see' these multitudinous horizons so much clearer than our eye of eye ball and pupil, especially if we discard one dimensional and simple notions of distance and perspective.

I am reminded of a quote I used in my artist's statement for my show 'Distance' in London in 2002. The quote is from Walter Benjamin's Illuminations where he describes aura as, the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. The word 'aura' has new age connotations, but I think, whether we know it or not, we are all searching for an experience and an understanding of aura. Maybe this is the unviversal search and that at each era, the agelessness of archetypal symbols offer clues to a discovery or a depended understanding of aura. We just have to keep investigating their potential. I think the investigation may require us to rely more on our mind's eye rather than always relying on our eye of eye ball and pupil...the two need to work together questioning everything.

My thoughts about multitudinous horizons have given me glimpses of the phenomenon of aura! These glimpses slip away as I try to grasp an understanding, but my hope is that as I discard old ways of 'seeing' I might come to a fuller experience of aura. Indeed, as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world, we are all actually forced to collapse notions of distant horizons, as we experience contemporary life. I suppose the hope is that the experience is understood as being potentially transforming in a positive way for all humanity.

Cheers,
Kathryn