Elements Art Gallery is pleased to present:

Tracey Clement
‘Recent (Hard) Work’

Opening Friday 3rd April at 6.30pm

Exhibition continues until 26th April 2009

Internationally exhibited artist Tracey Clement debuts the fruits of her labour in a solo exhibition throughout April entitled, ‘Recent (Hard) Work.’
Clements’ works provoke discussion of themes at the forefront of modern consciousness: climate change, body image and human relationships.

‘Recent (Hard) Work’ consists fundamentally of two bodies of work, ‘Border Zones’, and ‘Paper Trail.’ Although dealing with very different issues and utilizing unrelated materials, the two are connected through the artists desire to convey meaning through tedious, labour intensive, hard work.

In ‘Paper Trail’ the pain staking and time consuming labour involved in hand cutting the targets and hammering in the thousands of pins are a symbol of mankinds’ own complicity in the ecological crisis we now face. According to Clement, climate change didn’t just ‘happen’, we laboured long and hard to create this crisis. Her hours and hours of hard work are also symbolic of the futility of this labour: mankind’s foolish hubris in thinking we can dominate and control nature. Just as the vines and vermin in Paper Trail burst free of the constraints of the manmade targets, nature, with patient omnipotence, will always triumph in the end.

‘Border Zones’ also uses hard work to make a point. Constructed through highly labour intensive sewing, the work consists of a series of ‘Skins’ which are referred to by the artist as ‘her ladies.’ She argues that skin and textiles have commonalities: they can be cut, torn, stretched and stitched. Both are simultaneously solid and permeable: able to act as barriers and filters, and both bear the physical traces of age, use and abuse. Clement goes further to illustrate the disturbing point that in our image obsessed society, the face, skin, breasts and other body parts can simply be nipped and tucked in the way that a tailor can adjust a garment to suit the current trends.

The second piece in her Border Zones series, Perimeter, is about the beauty, fragility and risk inherent in intimate relationships. It is a skeletal double blanket made entirely from white thread and more than 10,000 buttons and pins stitched on by hand. It is impossible to look at Perimeter without acknowledging the hundreds (probably thousands) of hours of work that went into making it. It is clearly, deliberately, labour intensive. The painstaking hand crafted element of the blanket literally invokes the sheer emotional effort required to stitch together an intimate relationship. Numerous people, noting the hours spent crouched over the sewing machine or hand stitching tiny buttons onto her blanket would ask why the artist didn’t delegate these tasks, or employ sweat shop seamstresses. But to say this is to totally miss the point. A relationship requires work; it’s a tough job that cannot be outsourced.

An artist and writer, Clement obtained her Masters degree in Sculpture, Bachelors degree in Art History-Theory and an Advanced diploma in Jewellery design. Her works are collected by the Jewish Museum of Australia, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, the Nelson Polytechnic in New Zealand and private collections throughout Australia, New Zealand and the United States. Tracey is a freelance writer for several magazines including Art Gallery Guide, Artlink, and Australian Art Collector (to name a few) in addition to her weekly column in the Sydney morning Herald’s ‘Metro Section.’

…..ends…….

For further information please contact:
Sue Nash
Gallery manager, Elements Art Gallery
P: 9388 9960
E: sue@elementsartgallery.com.au

Target Vines (2008) Paper, Pins, Foamcore Board

3 Skins (2005-6) Nylon, Tulle, Polyester thread, Glass hangers