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Light Box Series |
Nicole Welch: Stealing Beauty
29 July – 15 August 2008
The FCA Gallery and School of Art & Design present an exhibition by Bathurst artist, Nicole Welch.
This exhibition titled Stealing Beauty was shown in full at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) in May/June 2007.
Nicole Welch is a print-maker who, in this work, combines designs from heritage textiles with contemporary print media.
Nicole completed her BA(Visual) with Honours (First Class) at the Australian National University in Canberra in 1998, and followed with a Grad.Dip Edu in Art & Design with the University of Canberra. She now lives and works in Bathurst and has been actively exhibiting since 2000.
In describing this body of this work, Alex Torrens, the Curator of her Bathurst exhibition says:
Nicole Welch creates art that is at once visually beautiful and conceptually challenging. A skilled print-maker, she uses digital and traditional printmaking techniques to explore themes centred on the subversion of beauty.
For Stealing Beauty Nicole has continued her interest in Victoriana and sourced decorative motifs from local heritage collections and Victorian books on etiquette, reinterpreting and presenting them within a contemporary context.
The central focus of Stealing Beauty is a series of digital prints mounted on light boxes. Within each, the artist has combined patterns from heritage lace work with illustrations from Victorian books with wonderful titles such as The quiver, An illustrated Magazine for Sunday and general reading 1884 (Cassell and Company Limited: Paris, London and New York) and then laboriously hand pricked into the digital image creating an intaglio line of light.
The use of light adds a new dimension to the works creating a ghostly atmosphere heightening the sense of drama in a way not possible when using more traditional methods. The choice of red and blue background colour further layers the series with meaning in combination with the light creating connotations of prostitution, red light districts and passion. Laced with black humour the titles provide cues as to the reading of the narratives hidden within.
In this series the artist is exploring the presumed thoughts and lives of Victorian women creating their domestic lace work and the realities behind the social attitudes of sexuality that coloured the Victorian world. She challenges the notion of the passionless, reproductive wife confined to private domesticity. The result is an engaging Neo-Victorian viewing experience.
The exhibition will be open to the public from 29 July to 15 August 2008. Entry to the exhibition is free of charge and opening hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
Images pictured:
Light Box Series -
Digital image, pinholes, light box, H 80cm x W 30cm, 2007
Other images -
Digital image, pinholes & light, H 200cm x W 80cm, 2007
FCA Gallery
Room 112, Building 25
Faculty of Creative Arts
University of Wollongong
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