Exhibitions / Love and Limerence

2013

Catherine Asquith Gallery, Collingwood

This new body of work by Melbourne-based artist, Gina Kalabishis, loosely referencing the St Valentine’s Day narrative as immortalized in Joan Lindsay’s “Picnic at Hanging Rock”, re-examines the Australian landscape, from a very specific female perspective: rather than compositions of grand epic vistas, these oil on linen paintings consider its minutiae.

Utilising the Ikebana arrangements of Norman Sparnon (1913-1995), as the basis for her compositions, Gina presents on one level, unorthodox combinations of Australian flora and animal skeletal parts; on another level, these elements are exactly what would be discovered on a bush trail through the landscape. Visually stunning, these superbly articulated works, variously titled “Irma”, “Miranda” for example, as in the characters’ names from the novel, present an unique and delicate interpretation of the Australian landscape.