Untitled

Full description

Research Background This permanent wall work entails a site responsive painting as the winning commission for the Royal Como Art Prize. Working on the wall crosses the boundaries of architecture and painting, dissolving the traditional categories of art and design. In this project I was investigating how to create an illusionary wall painting in the foyer of an apartment building that initially appears as geometric abstraction but is revealed as a representational painting of a form in space as residents move through the lobby, activating colours, light and shadows in the work. Research Contribution Working directly onto the walls of the foyer allowed the inherent qualities of the wall to operate as the surface. I explored working in a large space at a large scale to bring out more of the spatial and affective properties of painting whilst also responding to the built environment. Constructed with ghost gum greys, silvers and subtly shifting hues, made use of the foyer's ambient light and shadows. As residents move through their private lobby, the light and shadows reflect and radiate throughout the space activating the surfaces of the painting. This project extended this relationship between the body, time and surface by responding to the immediacy and quality of the space and through painting directly onto the wall of the foyer at scale. Research Significance Shortlisted out of six artists, in 2015, I was awarded the inaugural Royal Como Art Prize which was judged by Monash University's Professor Callum Morton and Sonia Simpfendorfer, Creative Director at Nexus Designs. The final outcome for the commissioned work was completed in February 2018.