ArtAviso

Door to Door (Art in the time of COVID-19 or Art from isolation)

About Door to Door:

In March at the beginning of lockdown, we invited Art Aviso Artists to be part of Art Aviso event 8.0: Artists were supplied via email or post with a page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge 1950’s Encyclopedia (Edited by Enid Blyton) selected at random, which was to form the basis of an artwork to be exhibited at some time on the other side of the Pandemic. The  page could act as inspiration for the colours, forms, texture, feeling or as a research starting point to dive down the rabbit hole!  Artworks could be any medium but needed to be created on paper of A4 size and remain unframed. 

When this project began there was no end plan for the output of the artwork, in fact it was very difficult to plan anything, it just felt important to be creating something together - apart.

What happened was, that we were inundated with requests to join the project, and as it began to unfold and the works started coming in with their accompanying stories, it became apparent that collectively the artworks were forming something special. Over 130 Artists are currently part of this project and exhibition event.

The first phase of this exhibition will take place as an evolving and growing virtual exhibition which displays the finished artwork alongside the page that the artists were supplied for inspiration, and will culminate in a physical exhibition in November 2020 at our partner gallery No Vacancy Gallery

View virtual exhibition HERE

"My initial response to the title ‘A cactus as Tall as a House’, was to work on a collage of reference photos I had taken at Cactus Country in Strathmerton, Victoria.

After consideration, it was the title of the page, as opposed to the subject mater, that became more relevant in terms of a starting point for a dedicated piece.

As an artist exploring flora as architectural studies, the house reference became an opportunity to explore the architecture implied, but with a previous model of one of my own works, a Bankis grandis cone.

In it’s simplified cylindrical form, it acknowledges the building modules of the iconic Tours Aillaud in Nanterre, Paris, designed by Architect Emile Aillaud, and built in 1976. Simple forms with minimal detailing.

By inclusion of a Brutalist stairwell observation platform, the final image implies a building or monument of size, and elevates the form from human scale to an object of architectural reverence." 

Garth Henderson / June 2020