White on White: Fiona Halse & Anna Caione
West End Art Space
Address:137 Adderley Street, West Melbourne,
Victoria, 3003
Hours: Wednesday- Saturday: 11 - 4pm
Email: westendartspace@gmail.com
Phone number: 0415 243 917
Website: www.westendartspace.com.au
Exhibition dates: Wednesday 28 August – 21 September 2019
Opening: Saturday 31 August 2-5pm, 2019
Malevich, K, 1926, Retrieved 19 May 2019 http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/malevich-suprematism.html
The Art Story, n.d. Kazimir Malevich, Retrieved
19 May 2019 https://www.theartstory.org/artist-malevich-kasimir-artworks.htm
The
exhibition ‘White on White’ explores the philosophical, poetic associations of
the colour white through the work of Melbourne artists Anna Caione and Fiona
Halse. Caione and Halse express the synergies and divergences in their approach
to abstraction through the process of surface manipulation and gestural
expression. Their shared preference for the colour white amalgamates their
works yet each artist loads the neutrality of the hue with a diversity of
personal meaning that gives rise to a range of intriguing interpretative
possibilities.
White is considered by some to be
a non-colour, yet its transformational qualities continue to fascinate
contemporary artists. White can be purely suggestive or a dominant force
informing the intrinsic visual language within an artist’s work. The initiation of the single-coloured
artwork termed the ‘Monochrome’ is a fairly recent occurrence of
twentieth-century art, with practitioners such as Piero Manzoni, Robert Ryman, Mary Martin and Kazimir Malevich falling into the category of
monochromatic painters. Curator Tanya Barson of the Tate’s Painting
with White exhibition has noted that
the decision for artists to restrict themselves to one colour can
open up a rich and versatile area of investigation, with the use of white
drawing attention to a variety of techniques, materials, textures, surfaces,
structures and forms.
Artists
often impose a restrictive palette to enable them to discover a plethora of
subtleties and nuances. Robert Ryman, for example,
embraced white’s neutrality for its ‘tendency to make things visible’. He
suggested that ‘a blank canvas enables an artist to clearly see a mark and
celebrate directness and materiality,’ yet a mark on white can also expose the
bare essentials posed within the surface of the work and manifested by gestural
impulses from the artist’s hand. Kandinsky sensed this multifaceted aspect to
white when he claimed it was the ‘harmony of silence’. In his book Concerning
the Spiritual in Art he described how the silent or still quality of
white resonated for him with ‘the many pauses in music that break the melody
temporarily’. (Kandinsky, W, 1977, p. 39).
The exhibition ‘White on White’ is
a tribute to Kazimir Malevich and his Suprematist composition: White
on White (1918). Whilst the Black Square (1915) is
commonly believed to be the ‘first Suprematist painting’ (Lodder,
C. 2018, p. 13) and communicates Malevich’s aesthetic theory
as the ‘the supremacy of pure feeling or perception in the pictorial arts’ (
MOMA, n.d.). Malevich referred to White on White as ‘a
representation of the transcendent state reached through Suprematism’ (The Art
Story, n.d) and marked a shift from polychrome to monochrome. Malevich’s
contribution was significant to the development of non-objective and abstract
art, which he believed could pave the way to spiritual freedom, a utopian
world of pure form and a ‘universal language that would free viewers from
the material world.’ (Malevich, K, 1926).
References:
Art21, Inc, 2007, Color, Surface and Seeing, Robert Ryman, Retrieved 19 May
2019 < https://art21.org/read/robert-ryman-color-surface-and-seeing/>
Kandinsky, W, 1977, Concerning the Spiritual in
Art, Dover Publications Inc, NY, USA
Lodder,
C, 2018, Celebrating Suprematism, Brill, Leiden,
Netherlands
Malevich, K, 1926, Retrieved 19 May 2019 http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/malevich-suprematism.html
MOMA, n.d. Retrieved 19 May 2019 https://www.moma.org/collection/works/80385
TATE, n.d. Painting
with White, n.d. Retrieved
19 May 2019 <
https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/display/in-the-studio/painting-white>
The Art Story, n.d. Kazimir Malevich, Retrieved
19 May 2019 https://www.theartstory.org/artist-malevich-kasimir-artworks.htm
installation image: 'White on White', Westend Art Space
installation image: 'White on White', Westend Art Space
( left and middle: Fiona Halse; Right: Anna Caione)
installation image: 'White on White', Westend Art Space
( Fiona Halse)
installation image: 'White on White', Westend Art Space
( Anna Caione)
Video of the exhibition
Collage of details and installation image
Collage of details and installation image: 'White on White', Westend Art Space
Interview
Selected work in the show
Fiona Halse, 'Sun', mixed media on canvas, 60x60cm, 2019
Fiona Halse, rhoi'r gorau i ( stop), 100cm H x 74cm, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2019
Fiona Halse, llanw (tide), 45cmH x 38cmW, Mixed Media on Canvas , 2019
Fiona Halse, Gwyn #1 (white), 62cm H x 31cm W, 2019 mixed media on canvas, 2019
Fiona Halse, ' Air', 28.5cm (H ) x28cm(W) ( framed size) mixed media collage, 2018
Fiona Halse, Unionsyth #1(upright), 46cm W x 102cm H, mixed media on canvas, 2019
Fiona Halse. ' Find', mixed media collage,31cm H x 25.5cm W ( framed size) 2018
Anna Caione, left White #83; right: WHITE #54, Fabric, pigment & mixed media on canvas, 2019
Fiona Halse, left : Heddwch 2; Right Heddwch 1 ( Peace), Mixed Media on Canvas, 2019
Fiona Halse. ' Afon ( river)', Mixed Media on Canvas ,100cmx100cm, 2019
Anna Caione, WHITE #8, Fabric, pigment & mixed media on canvas
Anna Caione, White #83 2019, Fabric, pigment & mixed media on canvas,100cmx100cm
Anna Caione, 2019, WHITE #7, Fabric, pigment & mixed media on canvas,100cmx100cm
Combining paintings and juxtaposition of white
Left: Anna Caione; Right: Fiona Halse
Left: Anna Caione; Right: Fiona Halse
Left: Anna Caione; Right: Fiona Halse (Heddwch 1)
Left: Anna Caione; Right: Fiona Halse (Heddwch 2)
Details
Anna Caione
Anna Caione
Fiona Halse, Afon ( river)
Anna Caione
Exhibition at Westend Art Space
2018 - source - https://www.annavisualartist.com/
My work fuses aspects
of contemporary culture and my Italian heritage, creating a threshold between
the realm of intangible memory and the physical realm of place. I endeavour to
touch on both personal and universal experiences, made manifest through the use
of materials with an everyday, familiar cast that, although abstracted, are
resonant with shared associations.
I am also concerned
with subjective understandings of matter and space, exploring the energies
inherent in materials and their transformative properties. I often revitalise collected
remnant fabrics and found objects in ways that at times suggest old historical
surfaces, architecture and the landscape, working intuitively with gestural
bodily movements to construct my compositions. My working method, which
connects hand and fabric, is grounded in ‘automatism’, a concept based on the
intuitive drive, the irrational, and the accidental occurrences during the
process of creating. New York School abstractionist Robert Motherwell once defined
automatism as ‘letting the work pour out, without any critical intervention or
editing’, and for me this involves stretching, sewing, pulling, layering,
cutting, and pouring as I apply, shape and harmonise a diversity of materials
into a form of palimpsest.
Once the work has
been built up I manipulate the surface to expose the expressive
layers of raw materials, and allow the skeletal structures of the piece and its
subconscious narrative to be revealed. Thus the final artwork functions not
only as a means of exploring the physical process of creation, but also as a
vehicle for contemplation, encouraging the viewer to consider the less tangible
atmosphere conceived within that inflects the visible outer form.
ANNA CA
ANNA CAIONE MILANO ITALY 2018
Fiona Halse
My work seeks to convey a personal space that is metaphorically associated with the human figure. Form is found through connecting to a deep resonant feeling, reflecting a personalised, generalised space. Whilst my work is lyrical and utilises Tachist approaches, my work is formal and has an architectonic basis and explores drawing principles. Pictorial and illusionist devices are utilised to create depth, but ambiguity and privacy are also explored by flattening shapes and focusing on the picture plane. I am interested in capturing the visceral and how forms can be deeply connected to an essence that is not described but sensed. My work is aligned with Giacometti’s dissolving scaffolded skeleton forms that Sartre describes as ‘halfway between nothingness and being’. It is also related to a need to be fluid with inner and outer forms, not unlike Klee’s ‘Endotopic’ and ‘Exotopic’ space. This personal space is efficiently captured through abstract forms.
I have an interest in how Poiesis and metaphoric form can be activated through Praxis. Forms are found within my work through a need to connect to the materials. This Tachist and touch-based approach to creating work creates space for poetic interpretations and abstract concepts.
Research links:
Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition: White on White
Cage - music
Mallarmé - Poems
Kazimir Malevich Suprematist Composition: White on White
Original Title: Белый
квадра (Date: 1917 – 1918)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_on_White
https://monoskop.org/images/5/58/Malevich_Kazimir_1927_2000_Suprematism.pdf
https://www.academia.edu/10913495/SUPREMATIST_COMPOSITION_WHITE_ON_WHITE_1918_BY_KAZIMIR_MALEVICH
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/intl-avant-garde/v/malevich-white-on-white
https://monoskop.org/Kazimir_Malevich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprematism
http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/malevich-suprematism.html
http://www.kazimirmalevich.org/white-on-white/
Piero Manzoni
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/manzoni-achrome-t01871
https://monoskop.org/images/5/58/Malevich_Kazimir_1927_2000_Suprematism.pdf
https://www.academia.edu/10913495/SUPREMATIST_COMPOSITION_WHITE_ON_WHITE_1918_BY_KAZIMIR_MALEVICH
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/art-between-wars/intl-avant-garde/v/malevich-white-on-white
https://monoskop.org/Kazimir_Malevich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suprematism
http://www.moodbook.com/history/modernism/malevich-suprematism.html
http://www.kazimirmalevich.org/white-on-white/
Piero Manzoni
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/manzoni-achrome-t01871
Ryman
– ‘ white has the tendency to make things visible. With white you can see more
of a nuance; you can see more’
Philosophical,
poetic and spiritual associations of white monochrome paintings – Tate collection
Robert Hunter
Lucio Fontana
Robert Ryman
Cage - music
The white paintings gave Cage the courage and 'authority'
to compose his silent pieces.
The typography of Cage's books greatly resembles this
work by Mallarmé
Mallarmé - Poems
Polysemous play on the concept of white. Words such as
'snow', 'swan', 'virginity', 'foam', 'frigidity', 'glacier', and 'paper' are
all associated with whiteness
Hans Arp – sculptures composed of plaster and left unpainted
and their natural white color.
https://utopiadystopiawwi.wordpress.com/dada/jean-hans-arp/human-concretion/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/monochrome
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-expanding-form-t13322
Kandinsky
Claimed white was the ‘harmony of
silence’, and it was not negative or subservient, but rather charged with
potential. ‘White, therefore, has this harmony of silence, which works upon us
negatively, like many pauses in music that break temporarily the melody. It is
not a dead silence, but one pregnant with possibilities. White has the appeal
of the nothingness that is before birth, of the world in the ice age’.
Kandinsky, Wassily,
Concerning the Spiritual in Art,
trans. by M. T. H. Sadler (Mineola, NY: Dover, 1977). pp.
77–78.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/m/monochrome
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/martin-expanding-form-t13322
