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Exhibition Invitation: Angular Sun

This series of paintings is an exploration of interactions with the yellow field. Combining abstract and figurative elements, alongside geometric lines and geological formations, the works create a dialogue between expanses of yellow and blue with residual matter. Through the interplay of these elements, the works explore ideas of information-seeking as spiritual act. The works seek to physicalise the mental state of confronting an unsolved and compelling problem.They achieve this through the compositional device of figures immersed in angular and surreal spatial compositions, characterized by steep diagonal lines and fields. These spaces seem unfamiliar, there is no vegetation or animal life. The angles create a sense of slip, a feeling that the earth could shift at any moment. These appear to be transient settings, yet they also seem historical and fossilized. Some of the figures look at the viewer, as if momentarily diverted from their mental pursuits. The works blur the boundaries between interior and… Read More »Exhibition Invitation: Angular Sun

Old Friends

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A series of mixed media works. combining painting and ink with collaged watercolour figures. The works use humour to explore ideas of navigating a world that is unstable and in constant flux. Collaged figures inhabit a space of geometric objects and lines, the colour scheme references natural elements, air, earth and the sea but which has been abstracted into yellow fields, voids of blue and  textured space suggestive of rock, an oil-like sludge. The figures appear as faces, two dimensional profiles facing forward, occasionally staring back at the viewer, inviting them in. The heads move through the space like fish, disembodied, buoyed amongst the landscape, busy, searching, examining the world and their prehistoric ancestors. Distracted by bright fields, and amorphous spaces the figures move from one curiosity to the next, caught in an endless loop.

Currently Exhibiting – Hook and Eye

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Still from “Hook and Eye”, collaboration with @cianholt , 5:10 minutes part of the “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi” (Woman, Life, Freedom) exhibition currrently on at @ladderartspace This video work follows three women as they purposefully walk through a dark, deserted urban landscape to explore ideas of women, freedom and night. The footage used to create this video was filmed collaboratively by Carolina Arsenii and @cianholt and involved hours of traipsing through the coastal northern suburban streets of Perth. Only a fraction of the footage filmed was used. The creation of this video required us to visit sites that may be traditionally considered dangerous for women such as suburban streets, underpasses and parkland in the dark of the night. We felt we were only able to be out in the night with the safety of each other’s company, but the video depicts an ideal world where women walk at night alone without feeling unsafe. In some ways,… Read More »Currently Exhibiting – Hook and Eye

Gargoyle

A hollow structure crowned with abstract, gargoyle-like forms, this work explores ideas surrounding the intersection of the practical and the spiritual. The sandy finish of the work mimics an ossified creature or a tool from previous generations, yet the gargoyle-like forms suggest a surreal spiritual device. Gargoyles traditionally play a dual role, that of caretaker, providing the practical function of clearing water from a building and that of spiritual warden, protecting a building and its inhabitants from evil spirits. The intriguing physical form of the gargoyle is an additional and unintentional by-product that does not address either function. The piece confronts the idea that a by-product that does not address an intended function can be a compelling characteristic of a functional object. This piece interrogates whether an object needs to be justified by a practical or spiritual function or whether it needs to be justified at all.

Conulariid | Reimagine Art Prize 2022

Conulariid 55 x 35 cm, reclaimed piano parts from defunct pianos, currently on show at the Reimagine Art Prize at Wallarobba Arts and Cultural Centre in Hornsby, NSW This work is now on show as part of the Reimagine Art Prize in Hornsby, NSW Made using defunct piano parts, this work reuses and repurpose waste, to explore the mystery of trying to reconstruct the past through surviving relics. Conulariids are a little-understood fossil group, thought to be related to Jellyfish.  Conulariids are now extinct, and all that scientists have to try to understand how these animals lived is their fossils. This work is an imagined form, inspired by the idea of Conulariids. The use of defunct pianos as the primary material for this work was an attempt to incorporate more recycled and repurposed resources in my work. For an earlier “Conulariid” shown in Sculpture by the Sea (Sculptures Inside) I used a piano action found… Read More »Conulariid | Reimagine Art Prize 2022

Nets and Traps | 4 – 21 May 2022

You are warmly invited to attend Nets and Traps, rescheduled for the third time due to the pandemic, this show is now most certainly on, opening on 4 May 2022 with the opening event on 6 May 2022 at 6pm!

Poster Walk today at 6pm

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Interactive Map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1EqGR_KSQw1SGAXRwGkmruEVVF5mABQLn&usp=sharing

AN INSTRUCTION MANUAL ON HOW TO BE LUCKY

Thank you to the City of Melbourne for funding me with a Covid 19 Quick Response Grant. In amongst the delirium of isolation I have been busy creating a video which will premiere online with an accompanying artists talk in mind-June. Please stay posted as anyone in the world will be able to attend this online event.

I warmly welcome you to my upcoming exhibition  

Open Your Eyes

Below is a short film I made on the sheer terror of existence. Make sure you turn up the volume.

Raku Firing

  Below are some photos from the Raku-firing process, which is a technique of placing glazed ceramics in a kiln for a relatively short period (approximately 1.5 hours) and then throwing them mercilessly into sawdust, which creates interesting patterns and textures.

Unexpected Encounters in the Desert

I have finished another semester at TAFE. I particularly enjoyed my printmaking course, this time learning both intaglio and relief printmaking techniques. The print above has been created using a metal etching technique. A metal plate is coated with bitumen, then a design is scratched into it to and the plate is placed in acid. The acid eats into the exposed metal where the bitumen has been scratched away, thus etching lines. Larger tonal surfaces can be achieved by a similar technique of painting bitumen onto the plate. To create the print, ink is rubbed into the plate and it is then placed facing upwards on the press, with wet paper placed over it, before running it through the printing press. This technique is known as “intaglio” printmaking.

Lost and Found | An Exhibition by Carolina Arsenii Carolina Arsenii’s solo exhibition Lost and Found presents a series of aporias encountered by figures in contradictory spaces. Through composition, colour and pattern, the works create an internal dialogue between characters, objects and landscapes. The figures that populate the landscapes at times appear in multiplicities, at times oblivious to phenomena outside of their sphere and their subconscious discourse with it, at times to their own agency. Landscapes are strewn with precious objects, fabulous plants, an idealised yet sinister space, often watched over by familiar edifices. Works within Lost and Found seek to explore different aspects of interconnectedness between self and world, and hence the complexity of the situations in which these figures seem to find themselves. All are most welcome to my upcoming exhibition, which is open to the public. Opening Night: Friday 23 June 2017, 6:30pm Opening Times: Saturday 24 June 2017 – Thursday 29… Read More »

Go West

It’s gold and glittery… I have been entered the fantastic world of woodblock printing. The print above depicts my hometown Perth, Western Australia. I have added  topographical lines and golden shading to the printed image using posca paint markers. I initially intended to use the woodblock below for the topographical patterns, but found that due to the thickness of the lines it works better as a separate image.

Ink Paintings

Large ink paintings exploring themes of water and identity.

Ceramic Archetypes – A Good Omen

I am taking great delight in my ceramics course and creating some 3-dimensional archetypes with clay. The “Good Omen” heralds the birth of a new artistic direction and the coming of Easter. The above images show porcelain ceramics which are drying prior to the initial bisque firing (1000 degrees) after which they will be glazed and then again fired to stoneware quality (1360 degrees). The archetypal individuals have been placed in archetypal arrangements: “the archetypal philosophy circle” and “the archetypal power struggle”.  

A New Studio ….

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Exciting things ahead this semester, including Lithography and Ceramics

I warmly invite you to my upcoming exhibition…

  DISSECTIONS An exhibition of Drawings and Paintings by Carolina Arsenii. OPENING NIGHT 1 February 2016 at 6PM THE BIRD 181 William St, Northbridge, Western Australia 6003 https://www.facebook.com/events/1089521187735432/ https://www.facebook.com/events/1089521187735432/