Q5 with Vegas Spray Part 1

This month we have the privilege of hosting a great collection of emerging artists from Brisbane which has been brought to us by Vegas Spray in their second annual Roadtrip travelling exhibition. 

To make the Q5 series easier to read for this exhibition, instead of individual Q5 posts, we have combined the responses into two parts - each featuring 4 of the participating artists.  In the first you'll meet; Erin McNamee, Mark Kleine, Indiana Chataway & Melissa Jenkins.




Images from installation on 1st February 2014

Erin McNamee

Q1 Tell us about yourself.

I am interested in expressing abnormal passions and insanity through art and am obsessed with horror movies though I don’t get to watch as many as I would like. I am a current language student and am also interested in Asian culture.

Q2 Please describe the art you have in the exhibition.

My work is a lead pencil drawing that depicts a portrait of a female with a cleft lip, on the bottom of the drawing are geometric shapes.

Q3 What inspired you when creating it?

I am really interested in the idea of the ‘final girl’ within horror movies so a lot of my works show females who have been through some sort of trauma. While creating to keep myself inspired I usually watch horror movies or listen to classical music.

Q4 What is your favourite part of making art?

My favourite part of making art is the repetition; I find small repetitive tasks really relaxing so I try to make things with small details that I have to work slowly on. I also like how when I have completed a work I can express my feeling through the work as I am not that confident to do it through words.

Q5 Who are your favourite artists?

My favourite artists are Matsui Fuyuko, Takato Yamamoto and Bill Henson.

 

 

Mark Kleine

Q1 Tell us about yourself.

My name is Mark and I live in Logan City, Queensland. I make work about Australian lifestyles, exploring how culture converges and differentiates. I am a recent graduate of QUT with a BFA in Visual Arts and will undergo its Honors course this year.
Q2 Please describe the art you have in the exhibition.

Burlesque is a scene captured at a beach on Burleigh Heads where I perform a typical leisure activity. Antoinette has me enact the icon within a ironic setting of Australian attitudes on wealth and asylum seekers.

Q3 What inspired you when creating it?

I am inspired by the mutable nature of culture and seek to produce work which combines them. These works are homages to the diversity in Australian life concerning the beach, burlesque, history and privilege. Burlesque and Marie Antoinette are their major inspirations.
Q4 What is your favourite part of making art?

My favourite part is the drive - the crescendo of producing and realising a work as done.
Q5 Who are your favourite artists?

My favorites include Shirin Neshat, Yasumasa Morimura, Tracy Moffatt and Cao Fei.


Indiana Chataway

Q1 Tell us about yourself.

I am a social worker, photographer and artist living in Brisbane.

Q2 Please describe the art you have in the exhibition.
Most of my artworks feature people. The one in the exhibition is no exception and is an oil on canvas of three children.

Q3 What inspired you when creating it?
At the time I was studying social work and working as a nanny for two little people. Spending my days with children inspired a number of artworks as did the university subjects I took that explored societies and people.

Q4 What is your favourite part of making art?
Having time to sit and think and to focus on a very specific idea.

Q5 Who are your favourite artists?
My favourite artist of all is Charles Blackman but I have lists and lists of artists that I look to for inspiration.


Melissa Jenkins

Q1 Tell us about yourself.

I’m a 21 year old artist and jeweler living in Brisbane. I'm studying 3rd year BFA (Visual Arts) and diploma of education at QUT and loving it. Family, art, business and jewelry crafting is my life. I try to keep focused and work hard on everything I have passions for. Having proved to myself that there are always positive returns in everything when you’re doing your best. 

Q2 Please describe the art you have in the exhibition.
'Action over Mind' is a work that can be interpreted in many ways. To me the work explores the constraint of the human mind through the representation of the human body. Conveying a vacant space within the mind which chooses right from wrong and overall stability. While being a tad bit of a self-portrait as it depicts me. Though I’d be pleased with however people take the work as art should be enjoyed and understood in many ways.

Q3 What inspired you when creating it?

Funny enough, gallery pillars for displaying artworks were what set my inspiration into flight. There is always weight consideration used when displaying an artwork on a pillar or it might result in the work tumbling over. They reminded me of balance and how many aspects of life are out of our control and have no balance. So I wanted to turn such controlled objects of the gallery environment into objects that I could not control myself to represent constraint and concentration. Resulting in me dangerously balancing on 3 unsecured pillars to take the photo. The work then sat in post-production until, I decided to manipulate the photo into a more developed and open meaning. Which can be found in my artist statement. I swear I only tumbled over once!

Q4 What is your favourite part of making art?

Collaboration is one of my favourite parts of art as it gives me a second opinion and motivates me to get the best out of my artworks. Watching how people interact and grow up together through their lives is also something that impacts on the development of my art practice. Just learning about different cultures and people for my art practice is enjoyable.

 Q5 Who are your favourite artists?

I’ve always been influenced by both contemporary artists and Japanese manga artists. Listing some of the most influential to my art practice is Shirin Neshat, Makoto Shinkai , Hayao Miyazaki, Rirkrit Tiravanija and I absolutely love Yuan Goang-Ming works.


To find out more about the art in the exhibition, you can also read the artist statements from each artist on our website here.  'Roadtrip' runs until 22 February 2014 at 109 Lake Street, Cairns. As always Cell Art Space is open 24/7 and is still accessible to pedestrians during the City Place upgrade. Closest parking is behind Canopy off Grafton Street.