belinda fox, 'balancing the world' exhibition catalogue

Belinda FoxBalancing the World

A nomad at heart, Belinda Fox pitches her practice on the social, cultural and visual material gathered on her extensive travels throughout Asia. Having relocated to Singapore three years ago, the artist creates multilayered narratives responding to the vicissitudes of space in East Asia’s mega cities and metropolitan regions. Paradoxically defined by the ever-increasing need to grow and the rapid decline of space, these cities embody the tenuous balancing act endemic to a global society mounted on an insatiable thirst for ‘progress’. With sculptures made in Shanghai, ceramics created in Singapore, and prints produced in Thailand, Fox’s new series considers what is being sacrificed in the stride of human advancement; namely the desiccation of tradition and the natural environment. The works fuse the notion of progression with that of regression, exposing the irrationality that belies an ostensibly rational impulse to move forward.

Crafted in close collaboration with Singaporean artist Jason Lim, Fox’s anthropomorphic ceramics linger on the line between creation and collapse, cemented in states of perfect acrobatics. Gritty glazes of charred blacks, burnt browns and mottled whites conjure a regenerating bush landscape after a wildfire, wherein creation emerges from destruction, hope from despair, beauty from decay. Channelling this nascent rebir th, the embryonic forms seem to coil and contort before our very eyes, their surface markings like some kind of internal anatomy tattooed on their ceramic skins. Historically embedded in one of the world’s oldest and most traditional ar t forms, these ceramics are emblematic reincarnations of tradition – symbolic foils for our incessant preoccupation with the present. Tactile and organic, they also function as material remedies to the vir tualisation and increasing dephysicalisation of reality pivoting contemporary culture.

Fox’s paintings and prints are colonised by representations of extinct and endangered bird species saddled with precarious pilings of abstract objects. Literalising the idiom ‘to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders’, the birds are allusive embodiments of the environmental strain that parallels commercial gain. Working on a clay board, which she distresses and ages, the artist paints with watercolour, inks and encaustic wax in translucent veils that gently fade the image into the distance, into the past. The artist’s deconstructed renditions of the peony flower, a traditional Chinese symbol for prosperity and perfection, hints at the destructive shadow of human progress – how it can both build and destroy community. A dilution of tone, fracturing of form and delicate lineation of geometry suffuse the works with a tranquil and meditative air, ventilating the vigour of their conceptual currency. This is Fox’s dialectic – seductive aesthetics channelling confronting thematics. Her images are symptomatic gateways into the duality of creation and destruction endemic to the contemporary human condition, ultimately imploring us to recalibrate our collective conscience.

A former Master Printer at Port Jackson Press Australia, Fox has won many prestigious awards, including the Paul Guest Drawing Prize (2010), the Burnie Print Prize (2007) and the Silk Cut Award for lino cut prints (2004). Recently, the artist worked with Urban Arts Projects (UAP) in Shanghai to make an experimental mild steel sculpture, and she has received several notable residencies including, this year, a printmaking residency at C.A.P Studios, Thailand. Her work is held in major collections including National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, QUT Art Museum and Artbank.

Elli Walsh, Ar ts Writer

Belinda FoxBalancing the World

Ar thouse GallerySydney Contemporary Ar t Fair10 - 13 September 2015

<Weight/waitwatercolour and drawing on board200 x 110 cm

>Suspendwatercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm

5

6

Looking for a cer tain ratio I Iwatercolour, drawing and encaustic wax on board110 x 100 cm

8

Holdwatercolour and drawing on board110 x 200 cm

10

Empty spaces/f inding form I Iwatercolour, ink and drawing on paper122 x 145 cm

12

As the world turnswatercolour, drawing and encaustic wax on board100 x 110 cm

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16

<Balancing the world I3 piece hand buil t raku and pit f ired ceramics56 x 103 x 33 cm

>Balancing the world I I2 piece hand buil t raku and pit f ired ceramics80 x 20 x 20 cm

19

Balancing the world I I I3 piece hand buil t raku ceramics25 x 55 x 40 cm

20

Balancing the world V2 piece hand buil t raku ceramics47 x 60 x 30 cm

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23

Balancing the world IV2 piece hand buil t raku ceramics30 x 50 x 17 cm

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25

Balancing the world IX3 piece hand buil t raku and pit f ired ceramics80 x 70 x 40 cm

26

Empty spaces/f inding form I I Iwatercolour, ink and drawing on paper122 x 145 cm

27

28

Looking for a cer tain ratio watercolour, drawing and encaustic wax on board 110 x 300 cm

29

30

Weight/wait I Iwatercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm

31

32

<Empty spaces/f inding form Iwatercolour, ink and drawing on paper122 x 145 cm

>Extract (1/3) mild steel110 x 100 x 25 cm

<Remedy I I I (2/10)bronze with reclaimed wood base72 x 84 x 30 cm

>Waverwatercolour and drawing on board200 x 110 cm

Maximalwatercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm

CoVER:Suspend (detail)watercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm

ACkNoWLEDGEMENTS

Jason LimUrban Art ProjectsChapman and BaileyFidoso Picture Framing

Arthouse GalleryDirectors:Ali YeldhamDi YeldhamManager:Tracy Le Cornu

Essay:Elli Walsh

Catalogue design:William Mansfield

PhotographyArtworks: Cher HimStudio portraits: Marcel HeijnenCeramic studio: lilreddotfolks.comBronze sculpture: Andrew Curtis

p. 4Weight/waitwatercolour and drawing on board200 x 110 cm$18,000

p. 5Suspendwatercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm$9,800

p. 7Looking for a cer tain ratio I Iwatercolour, drawing and encaustic wax on board110 x 100 cm$9,800

p. 8Holdwatercolour and drawing on board110 x 200 cm$18,000

p. 10Empty spaces/f inding form I Iwatercolour, ink and drawing on paper122 x 145 cm$9,600

p. 13As the world turns watercolour, drawing and encaustic wax on board100 x 110 cm$9,800

p. 16Balancing the world I4 piece hand buil t raku and pit f ired ceramics56 x 103 x 33 cm$8,000

p. 17Balancing the world I I3 piece hand buil t raku and pit f ired ceramics80 x 20 x 20 cm$5,500

p. 19Balancing the world I I I3 piece hand buil t raku ceramics25 x 55 x 40 cm$3,600

p. 21Balancing the world V2 piece hand buil t raku ceramics47 x 60 x 30 cm$4,800

Belinda FoxBalancing the World

Ar thouse GallerySydney Contemporary Ar t Fair10 - 13 September 2015Stand E03 CarriageworksEveleigh NSW 2015

All ar tworks are available for purchase on receipt of this catalogue. Please contact the galler y for fur ther information.

p. 23Balancing the world IV2 piece hand buil t raku ceramics30 x 50 x 17 cm$3,200

p. 24Balancing the world IX3 piece hand buil t raku and pit f ired ceramics80 x 70 x 40 cm$6,000

p. 27Empty spaces/f inding form I I Iwatercolour, ink and drawing on paper122 x 145 cm$9,600

p. 28Looking for a cer tain ratiowatercolour, drawing and encaustic wax on board110 x 300 cm$27,000

p. 31Weight/wait I Iwatercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm$9,800

p. 32Empty spaces/f inding form Iwatercolour, ink and drawing on paper122 x 145 cm$9,600

p. 33Extract (1/3) mild steel110 x 100 x 25 cm$18,000

p. 34Remedy I I I (2/10)bronze with reclaimed wood base72 x 84 x 30 cm$11,000

p. 35Waverwatercolour and drawing on board200 x 110 cm$18,000

p. 37Maximalwatercolour and drawing on board100 x 110 cm$9,800

66 McLachlan AvenueRushcutters Bay NSW 2011+61 2 9332 1019ar thousegaller y.com.aucontact@ar thousegaller y.com.au

66 McLachlan AvenueRushcutters Bay NSW 2011+61 2 9332 1019ar thousegaller y.com.aucontact@ar thousegaller y.com.au