siné macpherson

still lifes

26 august - 1 october 2016

We are very pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by eminent Australian artist SinÉ MacPherson.

The subjects for Siné MacPherson's meticulously coloured canvases rarely stray far from home. This has included field guides for plants and birds, and dictionaries from her bookshelves, newspapers and even her painting apron. As she noted, her “interests lie in colour, the descriptive languages of visual phenomena, and visual systems.” These interests can be solidly traced in her work as far back as the 1970s, such as Pear Box 1978, in which three painted canvas covered plastic pears are framed with a painting of the same pears. She questions how we visualise objects, what is real, what has greater visual authority? Her fascination with the ‘already made' has a strong tradition in art history, becoming popular in the 1960s, it describes a way for artists to look at and engage with the stuff of everyday life.

This new body of work, Still Lifes, is almost an exception to her rules. Some distance from home, MacPherson found an already made subject with which she could tackle the tradition of floral still life painting. These striking white crosses, with their cacophony of coloured plastic flowers, carved names and assorted tributes, resonated with her, lingering in her memory. She had made note of them as interesting possibilities but rumours that roadside shrines might be removed was the impetus to begin. All were different, but generally contained the same four ingredients: white cross, text, flowers, tributes. Unlike her previous themes, this one came loaded with other's emotions, with their losses, grief and memories. The shrines were very personal and extremely public displays. They were also warning signs to motorists. MacPherson had chosen a difficult subject, but it was an ‘already made' that deserved attention, because like no other floral still life of our time, they were a significant part of our local history. These were beautiful ready made, already made, floral still life arrangements.

MacPherson began documenting them in 2010. She recalled, “I found the subjects for Still Lifes on the Albany Highway. I had looked at them in passing, for years, but in 2010 I had a driver willing to slow down, turn around and wait while I took photos. It was hot, there were bugs, there were cars passing just meters away at 110, but great flowers - great artificial flowers already arranged." Over several years she has created a series of exquisite paintings. Time had faded the artificial flowers to soft hues, and MacPherson's palette reciprocated. The paintings hone in on the flowers, eliminating much of the background landscape, becoming essentially still life floral paintings.

It is important at this point to return to MacPherson's starting point of using “descriptive languages of visual phenomena and visual systems”. As she states, “the Still Lifes are found subjects, ready mades, already mades - I never make things up." She is not setting out to document local history, to paint a story or create a narrative, she paints subjects that interest her. These are not real flowers, they are not real shrines. These paintings consist of oil paint carefully applied to canvas, according to a strictly limited palette, yet one cannot help but be moved when viewing them.

Siné MacPherson was born in Canada and arrived in Perth in 1983. She holds a BA (Psychology) University of Saskatchewan, Canada (1974) and BFA (Visual Arts and Art History) Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1979). Many believe this school, in the 1970's, to have been one of the most influential art schools in the world, and at the centre of emerging conceptual art. MacPherson's artworks can be found in the collections of Art Gallery of Western Australia; The Cruthers Collection of Women's Art at UWA; Parliament House Art Collection, Canberra; Wesfarmers Collection, Perth; and private collections in Australia and Canada.

All quotes from an artist statement by Siné MacPherson, 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

albany highway oil on canvas 70 x 28cm + 70 x 100cm + 70 x 32cm 2012 $20,000
kay oil on canvas 40 x 40cm 2012 $6,000	norma oil on canvas 60 x 60cm 2012 $12,000
north of mount barker oil on canvas 39 x 130cm 2014 $12,000
facing north / facing south oil on canvas 23 x 58cm + 30 x 30cm 2014 $12,000
parkeyerring lake oil on canvas 52 x 73cm 2013 $14,000	mates forever oil on canvas 49 x 35cm 2016 $6,000
anji oil on canvas 33 x 35cm + 245 x 88cm + 23 x 140cm 2015 $16,500
north of katanning oil on canvas 61 x 85cm 2014 $14,000 sold	jellico road oil on canvas 30 x 24cm 2016 $3,000 sold
only fifteen oil on canvas 82 x 116cm + 49 x 120cm 2013 $25,000
mount barker oil on canvas 36 x 22cm + 46 x 68cm 2016 $10,500
john oil on canvas 46 x 58cm 2016 $7,000 sold to art gallery of WA