Falling Without Weight
Caitlin Aloisio Shearer , Grace Chandler, Rebecca Suares-Jury
31 Jul–24 Aug 2024
The notion of Falling Without Weight relates to rising and falling simultaneously. An elusive state of assuming two antithetical qualities, such as being unmoored in a world that resists logic, whilst anchoring oneself in that same world through the creative act. In their ethereal exploration of this persistent contradiction, these paintings utilise this dichotomous framework to look at the sublime in everyday experience and the absurd within the mundane. In the liminal space between reality and fantastical representation, painting becomes a visual language to render sense from the nonsensical.
In combining Aloisio Shearer’s uncanny paintings of women, Chandler’s depiction of illusory domestic spaces and Suares-Jury’s dreamlike botanical abstractions; the viewer sees three interpretations of subject matter traditionally associated with the feminine. These ostensibly feminine subjects are often attributed less cultural value than those associated with masculinity. While the feminine is often dismissed as frivolous, overly sentimental or ungrounded, it is in fact rich with insight into the most pertinent and ubiquitous aspects of life.
The title, Falling Without Weight, relates to rising and falling simultaneously. An ethereal and elusive state that assumes two antithetical qualities. This exhibition of paintings utilise this persistent contradiction to observe the liminal space between reality and imagined representation.
This program takes place on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. We recognise that sovereignty was never ceded - this land is stolen land. We pay respects to Wurundjeri Elders, past, present and emerging, to the Elders from other communities and to any other Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders who might encounter or participate in the program.
Caitlin Aloisio Shearer I seek to understand the world through painting. Attracted to the sensuous nature of oil paints, I define the canvas as a home for emotional processing to manifest. Flowers, faces and figures are long-held personal tokens in which meaning has been repeatedly invested. I like to propose a generous realm where interior and exterior worlds meet; birthing that which is in opposition to the reality of daily life.
Grace Chandler's art practice is an expression of a delight in oil paint and a persistent interest in the domestic. Her paintings hold in tension the concrete nature of the structure of a home, and the fluid nature of its contents and inhabitants. This complex relationship is often worked out in memory, another subject of her practice.
Rebecca Suares-Jury's process led paintings present an imagined space of motif and colour, through intuitive painted gestures. Often referencing textiles and ornamentation from her Indian heritage, with the language of abstract painting. Her work seeks to create physical, poetic experiences of feelings that are difficult to articulate, or enigmatic in nature.