Oh Sally

I've been researching Sally Smart a lot recently and love, love, love her work and approach to making art. Silhouettes, cut-outs, feminine identity, pirates....mmmm. I reckon she is a little bit unsung in the Australian art scene, maybe that is testament to the observation that painters might still be leading the charge? Well anywho, if you haven't seen her work before check it out here

I've got an itch for a triptych

Having a jab at the era of political incorrectness present of children's fiction. The 'Adventure' or 'Budget for Girls...' (circa 1930s-1960s) type books as they were often called, were most likely produced for quiet, sensible summer holiday reading. The stories often focused on well behaved teenage protagonists who fluttered around solving mysteries, stumbling across smuggled narcotics and winning table tennis tournaments. I've collected a number of these stories and use them in the collage cut/extract processes. But it was only recently that I became interested in the dust covers. I had previously thought of this part of the book as untouchable and that if I was going to be cutting up and shredding old even rare books, that I should at least 'leave the shell' as a kind of legacy to the object. Then I thought that the covers were the real 'selling point' of the books. Bright, cheerful illustrations emblazon the colours and many appear undiminished despite their old age. Some are also still marked with the signature of a previous owner.

So, I became interested in taking the mick out of the air-headed/white girl/private school saturated stories by layering contrasting text phrases and titles over the top of the covers. It didn't matter to me anymore that I was tearing the covers off some of these books. In 'The Other Side of Storyland', the titles and figurative conditions of the covers are altered to evoke a different side to the 'beautiful good girl' protagonists in the stories. On a personal level, the best books I read as a young girl and teenager were the ones that I could relate to on an emotional level or (not to sound wanky) that empowered me...even if was in a small way. So this triptych pokes fun but also reveals the vulnerability of the fictional characters in the aforementioned old Adventure/Girls books. While these characters were independent and wholesome, they were also falling into the arms of pilots and boys from grammar schools. So I can see the little ways in which the old stories sought to set a good example to the young female readers, they were also conditioning them subtly. The underlying aspirations towards gender specific jobs (secretaries, typists, nurses), romance and domestic life were definitely evident between the lines. The triptych therefore attempts to contrast romantic pre-60s bedroom dreams with the 'Adventure' and 'Storyland' titles (romance and girly giggles overriding independence), whilst also deconstructing and rehashing snippets of text to present a short description that alludes to a naughty, perhaps even sexually experimentive side to the protagonist's personality.

New collaborative and individual works: count down to ASSEMBLING WORLDS

From top:

'Kidnapped'
2011
Collage.

'Faz and the Revolution'
2011
Collage.

'From Tokyo with Love'
2011
Collage
Collaboration with Warren Handley.

'Call Me When You Get In'
2011
Collage
Collaboration with Warren Handley.

ASSEMBLING WORLDS - Rachael Bartram and Warren Handley

In profile - getting back on my drawing legs again

Entry for the Marie Ellis OAM drawing prize (Jugglers Art Space Inc). Originally I was using the Gwen in the roadster image as my subject, but I changed my mind at the last minute. This is only about a5 size, but you never know. The title 'The Searching Profile {and the unmoving cloud}' refers to the lost feelings experienced through personal frustration and anxiety. There is comfort in the image inside the profile self portrait. The two figures poised atop a blustery hill, represent the positive burning perseverance and the inner assurance that nothing has to be endured alone.

Stuck in orbit

Lost Girls (outer space)

2011
Graphite and Ink on found image (sourced from National Geographic)

Collage with book covers/sleeves

From top:
A Brush with a Charming Stranger

and

Maribel's Dirty Tricks