From Carrie Miller…
In Georgina Pollard’s latest exhibition Through Line II life doesn’t imitate art, nor is art a reflection of life, as the clichés go. Instead the artist makes explicit the way art proceeds from life and the way her specific process involves the articulation of both. Pollard explores the possibilities of how a ritualistic and personal approach to art-making – where her time spent painting is integrated into other aspects of her daily routine through the idiosyncratic process of pouring paint in patterns at regular intervals throughout the course of the day – might be necessary to our daily existence.
This integration of painting with the domestic aspect of life is extended to the type of paintings Pollard produces. These aren’t macho, Abstract Expressionist canvases anxious about their size. They are made through the repetitive layering of drips of paint in patterns and sequences until what emerges is a self-supporting fabric made entirely of paint – the removal of the canvas and stretcher frame perhaps also a reminder of the patriarchal nature of the art world and its supporting structures, particularly when it comes to the big men of painting. But Pollard’s work is a lot more than just a response to the sexism of the art world; it shows that women can paint too.
Until September 16
At The Vanishing Point, Newtown
Pic: Courtesy the artist & ATVP, Sydney.
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