Going on a little rant.

Felt a bit bloggy so here goes my little ARTEXPRESS rant..

So a couple of months ago I was discussing with someone, the act of giving flowers to people, I’d always figured it was a gesture of kindness or perhaps infatuation because flowers are [generally] nice-looking and make people feel positive and cheerio (personally I don’t understand the psychological aspects of it much so can’t really think of a very sound explanation). Their interpretation however, was that what people were really giving to each other were plant genitals and hence a subtle invitation for sex. That flowers were genitals, I could only agree and sat in silent wonder thinking about how absurd it really was. It's a little crazy. I am mentioning this because it does coincide with the supposed concept I gave to my Body Of Work (BOW)..

My name is Estelle Felix and my work “Whimsical Lunacy” has been chosen for the ARTEXPRESS 09 exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.

It’s a rather strange feeling to have things you’ve spent forever fiddling with, displayed in some kind of gallery of sorts. Today was the exhibition opening and as I walked through the muddy park and up the steps of that huge schmancy building I couldn’t help but feel somewhat intimidated.. almost as if I cheated my way there. I mean people make art for years to get in a place like that and there I was with a single years worth of “serious” artmaking experience behind me. In other words, I’m really quite ecstatic that my work’s been chosen for ARTEXPRESS. It’s true. See ---> :D

I’m yet to begin a Bachelor of Design degree at UNSW which will cater nicely to my interests because I’ve had a lot of trouble with deciding on what area of design I’d be best in- graphic? maybe textiles or jewellery? Who knows.

The artistic intentions I had for my BOW:
Well you see, to continue with the "flower-fact" I opened this entry with, when I first started my BOW I kept conjuring up ideas that were usually entirely illustrative and fairly obvious. I didn’t understand that by doing these sorts of things I was restricting others from their own subjective viewing of my work... i.e. I was turning my work into a diagram of sorts, equipped with instructions for ‘how to view it’. This was because I thought that if I had an idea to tell people about, then I really had to make sure they absolutely and completely and irrefutably understood precisely what it was I was trying to express (in it’s entirety) at first glance. It seemed as if I was almost too aware that people can interpret, misinterpret or reinterpret pretty much everything for themselves.

After a while I think I saw beauty in subjectivity and ambiguity. I looked upon Surrealist artists I admired and realized how much of there work was left open for people to take what they want and to see for themselves and be affected by the artwork in multiple ways depending on the viewer. I then began to understand how seemingly primitive the idea was to force people to see art in a 'one-and-only' way.. take for example, portrayals of biblical narratives through classical paintings.

Armed with my new appreciation of subjectivity, I created pieces that are unrestrictive in almost every way- colour, subject matter, space and use of unconventional materials (like socks and other found objects). I wanted to use the idea of the ambiguous subconscious mind to create works that expressed the constant flow of often irrational ideas just so I could say a big fat,

“go on, imagine a little and take what you want from it” and then going on to ask,

“see those shapes? What do they look like to you? And how can you expand on that idea by using the other absurdities around it?”. Then hopefully (or ideally) they’d reply something like,

“oh wow, they look like dog ears! Yes! It’s a dog with crazy crazy eyes, one of which is framed by fake eyelashes in the form of mathematical ruling devices and it’s got swans running profusely out of its windowed fortune cookie nostrils! Alas! I am inspired!!”. So, in a way, its kind of like cloud watching but with colour and not as limited in terms of shape variation.

Yes so really I’d like to encourage people to interpret the art they see for themselves.. it’s certainly more enjoyable that way and more helpful too especially if you’re in the process of artmaking and developing your own style. Someday one may get so advanced with this skill, that they can see something like “Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride” and think to themselves,

“goodness! that the woman looks as if she has horns!.. Therefore she must be some kind of diabolical goat who isn’t actually pregnant but has a small-but-lethal sized canon hidden underneath her dress that will blow her husband up to smithereens so that she can get all his money and go holidaying with some other man!... Yes, I am sure it is so!”

Strangely, even though I thought I did indeed create a BOW by which each person could interpret [my madness] for themselves, when we had an art and music soiree at school one young gentleman did come up to me claiming quite enthusiastically that my collection of works was (and I quote) “exactly what the inside of my head looks like!”. I was quite taken back to be honest, but ah :), it was probably the most wonderful comment I’ve received from it so far.

To finish this up though, I have to say that from what I've seen today of this years ARTEXPRESS exhibition, I am just so grateful that my work has made it amongst some of the most impressive and aw-inspiring BOWs I have seen thus far.