2022
Seven Forms (Collie '22)
Exhibited at Collie Art Gallery, Collie, Western Australia
23 July - 4 September 2022
Seven artists observe layers of meaning attached to sites and artifacts encountered in the Collie region. They notice the mapping and movement of land, water and fauna as cultural formations echoed in processes of alteration in their own printmaking, drawing, and shaping of clay.
Aware of being visitors to Collie and Noongar Country, the Perth-based artists reflect on landscapes as sites of flux (mining sites, riverscapes, lakes) rather than as fixed and static places. All the while however, the ghosts of memory and recollection remain as traces, lines and folds in the land mirrored in their artforms.
Seven Forms offers viewers an altered way of seeing familiar places and things. The artists create work inspired by Collie while bringing to the task their ability to produce material formations that connect industrial culture and the physical world. This is done in ways that resonate with concern at environmental disruption and optimism at opportunity for change.
Artists: Susanna Castleden, Monika Lukowska, Melanie McKee, Alana McVeigh, Layli Rakhsha, Sarah Robinson and Sue Starcken.
Curated by Janice Baker
Click here for further information on the exhibition and community program.
Seven Forms (Collie '22)
Exhibited at Collie Art Gallery, Collie, Western Australia
23 July - 4 September 2022
Seven artists observe layers of meaning attached to sites and artifacts encountered in the Collie region. They notice the mapping and movement of land, water and fauna as cultural formations echoed in processes of alteration in their own printmaking, drawing, and shaping of clay.
Aware of being visitors to Collie and Noongar Country, the Perth-based artists reflect on landscapes as sites of flux (mining sites, riverscapes, lakes) rather than as fixed and static places. All the while however, the ghosts of memory and recollection remain as traces, lines and folds in the land mirrored in their artforms.
Seven Forms offers viewers an altered way of seeing familiar places and things. The artists create work inspired by Collie while bringing to the task their ability to produce material formations that connect industrial culture and the physical world. This is done in ways that resonate with concern at environmental disruption and optimism at opportunity for change.
Artists: Susanna Castleden, Monika Lukowska, Melanie McKee, Alana McVeigh, Layli Rakhsha, Sarah Robinson and Sue Starcken.
Curated by Janice Baker
Click here for further information on the exhibition and community program.
2018
Convergence
Exhibited at La Central, Santander Spain
3 - 9 September 2018
A joint exhibition by artists Monika Lukowska and Melanie McKee, Convergence is concerned with the human experience of dislocation from origins, and understanding new places. Born in different hemispheres (Poland and Zimbabwe) and now living far from 'home' (Australia) we seek to explore the nuances of distance via printmaking practices. Using the surface of the print as a site for reconciling personal narratives between dislocated places McKee investigates how memories of a past and present home can be imbued within material culture via the amalgamation of printmaking, textile and digital technologies. Lukowska is interested in exploring several aspects of place such as its materiality, atmosphere, landscape and architecture, and how these elements can evoke a sense of place and belonging and transposes the complex experience of place within the printed surface.
In our creative practices, we endeavour to “make places” (Massey 1995) using a range of printmaking methods. Through this process, we are actively involved with places from our past and present, and recognise the affective qualities of place evident in the resultant artworks. We question if the surface of the print can act in such a way that it creates a sense of place, and manifests our experience of dislocation and distance into a physical form.
The exhibition interweaves traditional printmaking techniques such as lithography and screen-printing, with digital technologies and textile work, in a synthesis of methods that expands the boundaries of contemporary print. Through constant manipulation of the mostly photographic source images, we create multilayered works that respond to a process of displacement from significant locations, and that emphasise the attempt of building a relationship with our current home.
Convergence
Exhibited at La Central, Santander Spain
3 - 9 September 2018
A joint exhibition by artists Monika Lukowska and Melanie McKee, Convergence is concerned with the human experience of dislocation from origins, and understanding new places. Born in different hemispheres (Poland and Zimbabwe) and now living far from 'home' (Australia) we seek to explore the nuances of distance via printmaking practices. Using the surface of the print as a site for reconciling personal narratives between dislocated places McKee investigates how memories of a past and present home can be imbued within material culture via the amalgamation of printmaking, textile and digital technologies. Lukowska is interested in exploring several aspects of place such as its materiality, atmosphere, landscape and architecture, and how these elements can evoke a sense of place and belonging and transposes the complex experience of place within the printed surface.
In our creative practices, we endeavour to “make places” (Massey 1995) using a range of printmaking methods. Through this process, we are actively involved with places from our past and present, and recognise the affective qualities of place evident in the resultant artworks. We question if the surface of the print can act in such a way that it creates a sense of place, and manifests our experience of dislocation and distance into a physical form.
The exhibition interweaves traditional printmaking techniques such as lithography and screen-printing, with digital technologies and textile work, in a synthesis of methods that expands the boundaries of contemporary print. Through constant manipulation of the mostly photographic source images, we create multilayered works that respond to a process of displacement from significant locations, and that emphasise the attempt of building a relationship with our current home.
2017
Locale
Exhibited at Heathcote Museum & Gallery, Perth WA
6 May - 11 June 2017
Locale showcases the artwork of Emma Jolley, Monika Lukowska, Carly Lynch, Melanie McKee, Layli Rakhsha, Rachel Salmon-Lomas, and Gemma Weston. Co-curated by McKee and Lukowksa, this exhibition takes an interdisciplinary printmaking approach to address concerns faced by contemporary artists in an era of increased mobility and development of place. The artists address several significant aspects of place through their work, and recognize that the experience of dislocation, relocation, change and memory of place is common to many. Via temporal and physical explorations of place, from the site-specific to unattainable sites, the artists have used printmaking as a means of returning to place.
Locale
Exhibited at Heathcote Museum & Gallery, Perth WA
6 May - 11 June 2017
Locale showcases the artwork of Emma Jolley, Monika Lukowska, Carly Lynch, Melanie McKee, Layli Rakhsha, Rachel Salmon-Lomas, and Gemma Weston. Co-curated by McKee and Lukowksa, this exhibition takes an interdisciplinary printmaking approach to address concerns faced by contemporary artists in an era of increased mobility and development of place. The artists address several significant aspects of place through their work, and recognize that the experience of dislocation, relocation, change and memory of place is common to many. Via temporal and physical explorations of place, from the site-specific to unattainable sites, the artists have used printmaking as a means of returning to place.
Marston: remembering home through creative practice
Exhibited at Turner Galleries, Perth WA
PhD Examination Exhibition, 27 January – 13 February 2017
Identifying with the fields of memory and material culture studies, this research seeks to understand how a lost home can be remembered through creative practice, specifically plain sewing and printmaking. Marston Farm was my family home for fifty years, until the land was redistributed under the Zimbabwean Land Reform Programme in 2003, and my family subsequently migrated to Australia. Referencing scholars Alison Blunt and Gaston Bachelard and writers Rebecca Solnit and Doris Lessing, the project explores various meanings of home and place by situating my concerns in a larger theoretical and social context. In addition the creative project takes into consideration the implications of reflective nostalgia outlined by Svetlana Boym, testing how to reimagine home out-of-place.
Anthropologists Caitlin DeSilvey, Divya Tolia-Kelly and David Parkin have considered the significance of memory in material culture, and in this project these concerns are investigated in a contemporary art context. Drawing on James Barilla's notion of the 'return gesture', this research examines how to embody the memory of a place via creative practice. Encountered and embodied memory is evident in artworks that engage with material culture and creative processes, which have emerged from my memories of Marston, and Edward Casey's contention that habitual body memory aids orientation in place is explored via the use of plain sewing in my creative practice. Photographs form an important part of my enquiry as signifiers of place, time and visual mediators of distance; these findings are supported by the theories of Susan Sontag and Shelly Hornstein.
I suggest that by imbuing artworks with narratives of a remembered place via creative acts, there is the possibility of engendering a reimagining of place and memorial experience of a lost home; concepts relevant to those who face dislocation due to forced or voluntary migration from home. Through a personal project I seek to comprehend the broader implications of memory of home and place.
Boym, Svetlana. 2007. "Nostalgia and Its Discontents." Hedgehog Review (Summer): 7-18.
Casey, Edward S. 2000. Remembering: A Phenomenological Study. 2 ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2016
TERMINUS in search of an (im)possible conclusion
Exhibited at Paper Mountain, Perth WA
Melanie McKee and Monika Lukowska
The exhibition, Terminus, is concerned with the human experience of dislocation from origins and the search for belonging, effecting a deeper understanding of the complexity of place. Artists Monika Lukowska and Melanie McKee approach this topic from distinct experiential perspectives. Born in different hemispheres and now living far from 'home', they seek to explore the nuances of distance via printmaking and multimedia practices. Lukowska hails from Poland and McKee from Zimbabwe, and now for various reasons, both find themselves residing in Perth, Western Australia.
In their practices Lukowska and McKee bridge various printmaking techniques such as lithography and screen-printing, with digital technologies and plain sewing. By doing so they create a new graphic vocabulary that expands the boundaries of printmaking. Through constant manipulation of the source image, which is usually photographic, the artists create multilayered works that respond to a process of dislocation from significant locations and the endeavor of building a relationship with their current place.
Although the artists have independently explored themes of belonging, place and dislocation, as their paths converge, Perth becomes the terminus where they continue to explore these notions. In this instance the terminus is not perceived as a final destination, but rather as a port, a temporary site of settlement and the point of future departures and arrivals. In light of this proposition, Lukowska and McKee will develop a collaborative artwork to be shown during the exhibition. This artwork will form a critical perspective on the artists' personal experiences, merging their response to dislocation and establishing a conversation between the makers. Through their work the artists question how the printed image can navigate an experience of dislocation, and draw the maker—and viewer—closer to an imagined, and perhaps (im)possible terminus.
Melanie McKee and Monika Lukowska, "Terminus: in search of an (im)possible conclusion", Paper Mountain, Perth, Western Australia (2016). Installation views, courtesy of the artists, photography by Melanie McKee.
2015
Homing: Luxury and Necessity
Exhibited at Sanshang-Art (2015), as part of Impact9 International Printmaking Conference, Hangzhou, China.
Melanie McKee and Fran Rhodes
This exhibition brings together the work of two migrant artists as they explore, via printmaking, concepts of making 'home' post-migration to Australia. In this 'the post-print age', the artists use traditional print techniques alongside technologies like digital photography, Photoshop programs and even the humble photocopy. This combination of technology and technique enables an editing of both materials and concepts from here and there, inviting an audience into visual conversation with narratives of home and migration via personal anecdotes/imagery or broader representations of places/nations such as native flora and fauna.
The artists offer multiple perspectives on the possibilities of making home through print. Considering Homing as a migrant, Fran Rhodes is moved by the effects on her identity of the experience of living in many different places. A migratory aesthetic emerges from this experience that attempts to anneal fragments of aesthetic sensibilities indigenous to these places, resulting in a new, hybrid representation of home. Fran’s artworks combine elements garnered from a superficial understanding of generic Australiana and visual flotsam that belongs to an Elsewhere. With a foundation of digital photography and solvent transfer derived from photocopies, Fran builds upon these images with paint and thread. A layering of both techniques and concepts is established, generating complex insights into perceptions of home.
Once dispossessed of a home, Melanie McKee seeks to comprehend the relationship between the new home and the old. Drawing upon the research of Caitlin DeSilvey and Svetlana Boym pertaining to material culture, objects and the Homing experience of migrants, Melanie investigates how memories of past places can be imbued within material culture. She uses printmaking and plain-sewing technologies that combine to create memory objects generated within the interior of the home. Melanie's prints reference images of the old family home, dating back to the 1950s. Through the application of various print and digital processes the images are reworked and reimagined in Melanie's new home context of Australia where they are combined with, or stand alongside, plain sewn garments and objects.
Understandings of the composition and provenance of ‘home’ arise within print based artworks that aim to generate a sense of belonging by referencing objects, images and practices that make a home. By engaging with different creative technologies in the post print age, the artists allow a transference and interaction between past, present and future-possible homes; the here and there.
The exhibition Homing: Luxury and Necessity was funded by the West Australian Government through the Department of Culture and the Arts
GMT+8 (One, and the Other)
Exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Art, China Academy of Art (2015), as part of Impact9 International Printmaking Conference, Hangzhou, China.
Curated by Dr Susanna Castleden and Dr Ann Schilo.
Using a diptych format which places an emphasis on doubling – an act intrinsically associated with traditional printmaking – this exhibition brings together the work of artists who attend to the formal qualities of pariting whilst employing methods associated with dispersion and multiplicity. In so doing the works consider print in the expanded field of contemporary art practices to create new ways of envisaging the world. In redefining the boundaries of print, this collection of works employ diverse mediums including ceramics, cloth, paper and digital technologies.
In consort with an exploration of the aesthetic dimensions of the diptych, the exhibition also draws on ways of structuring time and space through the parallel time zone shared by each contributing artist (GMT+8). This temporal and spatial awareness also considers pairings such as exchanges between the local and the global, distance and proximity, here and there, past and present. As such the exhibition explores the potential of being in one place, and another. Central ideas connecting the works evolve from an understanding of a location that is considered geographically remote: a small city on the western coast of an enormous continent called Australia. However this sense of remoteness is not an encumbrance, rather it is the place that allows an understanding of the space and scale of the world to unfold. It enables these artists to critically engage with the post print era by reflecting on the cultural differences across nations and territories delineated by GMT+8.
2015. “IMPACT 9 International Printmaking Conference: Exhibitions / Open / Portfolios / Workshops / Trade Fair.” Exhibition Catalogue, pp37-39, China Academy of Art Press: Hangzhou.
Contributing Artists:
Monika Lukowska, Fran Rhodes, Layli Rakhsha, Peng Liu, Alana McVeigh, Lydia Trethewey, Joel Louie, Melanie McKee and Leonie Mansbridge.
Statement of Melanie McKee's artwork contribution for GMT+8:
In response to the concept of China and Western Australia's shared time zone, GMT+8, I sought to explore how vast distance can be manipulated and traversed. The notion of the diptych has been abstracted here, where one part of the artwork facilitates the making of the other. By means of an online shopping transaction, I purchased quality silk direct from a Chinese supplier. This product, the first part of the diptych, was shipped and arrived in Western Australia some 10 days later, whereupon the silk was transformed via creative practice. The resultant garment will travel back to China, forming the second part of the diptych, embodying a return home and closing the physical distance between here and there.
Artwork details: Melanie McKee, Here to there and back again, 2015, 107 x 42 cm, Solvent transfer on Chinese silk.
Exhibited at Museum of Contemporary Art, China Academy of Art (2015), as part of Impact9 International Printmaking Conference, Hangzhou, China.
Curated by Dr Susanna Castleden and Dr Ann Schilo.
Using a diptych format which places an emphasis on doubling – an act intrinsically associated with traditional printmaking – this exhibition brings together the work of artists who attend to the formal qualities of pariting whilst employing methods associated with dispersion and multiplicity. In so doing the works consider print in the expanded field of contemporary art practices to create new ways of envisaging the world. In redefining the boundaries of print, this collection of works employ diverse mediums including ceramics, cloth, paper and digital technologies.
In consort with an exploration of the aesthetic dimensions of the diptych, the exhibition also draws on ways of structuring time and space through the parallel time zone shared by each contributing artist (GMT+8). This temporal and spatial awareness also considers pairings such as exchanges between the local and the global, distance and proximity, here and there, past and present. As such the exhibition explores the potential of being in one place, and another. Central ideas connecting the works evolve from an understanding of a location that is considered geographically remote: a small city on the western coast of an enormous continent called Australia. However this sense of remoteness is not an encumbrance, rather it is the place that allows an understanding of the space and scale of the world to unfold. It enables these artists to critically engage with the post print era by reflecting on the cultural differences across nations and territories delineated by GMT+8.
2015. “IMPACT 9 International Printmaking Conference: Exhibitions / Open / Portfolios / Workshops / Trade Fair.” Exhibition Catalogue, pp37-39, China Academy of Art Press: Hangzhou.
Contributing Artists:
Monika Lukowska, Fran Rhodes, Layli Rakhsha, Peng Liu, Alana McVeigh, Lydia Trethewey, Joel Louie, Melanie McKee and Leonie Mansbridge.
Statement of Melanie McKee's artwork contribution for GMT+8:
In response to the concept of China and Western Australia's shared time zone, GMT+8, I sought to explore how vast distance can be manipulated and traversed. The notion of the diptych has been abstracted here, where one part of the artwork facilitates the making of the other. By means of an online shopping transaction, I purchased quality silk direct from a Chinese supplier. This product, the first part of the diptych, was shipped and arrived in Western Australia some 10 days later, whereupon the silk was transformed via creative practice. The resultant garment will travel back to China, forming the second part of the diptych, embodying a return home and closing the physical distance between here and there.
Artwork details: Melanie McKee, Here to there and back again, 2015, 107 x 42 cm, Solvent transfer on Chinese silk.
Necessary Fictions
New works by Melanie McKee and Fran Rhodes
This exhibition was opened by Dr Ann Schilo, on Sunday 11th January 2015 at 6pm.
Kidogo Arthouse, Bather's Beach Fremantle.
10 - 22 January 2015.
Artist Statement:
My art practice is concerned with the migrant experience and the making of home. Once dispossessed of a home, I seek to comprehend the relationship between my new home and the old. This body of work focuses on my grandparent's farm, Marston, in Zimbabwe. This is a lost home, and one that I endeavour to reconcile and engage with in relationship to my current home here in Perth, Western Australia.
The sewn garments can be considered as 'memory objects' that are intended to build an understanding of Marston, referencing the creative industries significant to that place, where my grandmother was a dressmaker and my grandfather wrought iron. They are not intended to be closed memorials; rather they provide an insight to an inaccessible past home through their form and the methods employed in their creation. While the printed works seek to demonstrate the relationship between the here and there, combining mapping images and techniques, with objects from Marston and flora from my local Perth neighbourhood.
The stitched memory objects and prints in this exhibition have afforded a means of welcoming an audience into the narrative of Marston Farm, a lost home.
New works by Melanie McKee and Fran Rhodes
This exhibition was opened by Dr Ann Schilo, on Sunday 11th January 2015 at 6pm.
Kidogo Arthouse, Bather's Beach Fremantle.
10 - 22 January 2015.
Artist Statement:
My art practice is concerned with the migrant experience and the making of home. Once dispossessed of a home, I seek to comprehend the relationship between my new home and the old. This body of work focuses on my grandparent's farm, Marston, in Zimbabwe. This is a lost home, and one that I endeavour to reconcile and engage with in relationship to my current home here in Perth, Western Australia.
The sewn garments can be considered as 'memory objects' that are intended to build an understanding of Marston, referencing the creative industries significant to that place, where my grandmother was a dressmaker and my grandfather wrought iron. They are not intended to be closed memorials; rather they provide an insight to an inaccessible past home through their form and the methods employed in their creation. While the printed works seek to demonstrate the relationship between the here and there, combining mapping images and techniques, with objects from Marston and flora from my local Perth neighbourhood.
The stitched memory objects and prints in this exhibition have afforded a means of welcoming an audience into the narrative of Marston Farm, a lost home.
