WORKS ON PAPER
HER TOOLS, 2010
part of the solo exhibition Inward Gathering, Nellie Castan Gallery South Yarra
Suite of 17 Collages on Archival Paper; Framed in Perspex boxes, 30 x 42cm each
BOMBSHELL, 2009
Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Suite of Seven Collages on Archival Paper, 58 x 78cm each
Photos: Simon Strong
Kate Just’s new exhibition in Studio 12, Bombshell is a new series comprising of seven collages. The title draws on the “Bombshell Girl” or “pin-up” girls who were painted onto the sides of WWII planes, bombers, and their bombs. This series extends Just’s ongoing interest in the idea that women and ‘machines’ can be considered as potentially interchangeable within the male imagination, and as such Just has created her own suite of ‘bomb- shells.’
Virtually legless and armless though implying movement through their curved bases, handles and tubes, Just’s bombshells are anthropomorphic combinations, bringing together both ‘women’ and machines, though perhaps of the domestic, rather than war-waging, sort. These fabulous femmes are comprised of various categories of objects which have actual or historical associations with the feminine, including the natural, the domestic and the bodily. As Just states: “Each collage represents for me an archetypal (rather than stereotypical) notion of ideal femininity - that she is youthful, fertile, desirable, and useful.”
Furthering Just’s interest in the biological mechanisms of femininity, each of these collaged ‘bombshells’ has been named after the female brand-names of contraceptive pills. A chemical intervention in female biology that has both liberated and yet programmed the female body.
Mirena, Yasmin Alesse, Juliet, Estelle, Brenda and Diane are at your service.
GERTRUDE STUDIO ARTISTS EXHIBITION, 2009
Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Suite of 3 Collages in main gallery space and 1 above desk/office
Archival Paper, 58 x 78cm each
Photos: Simon Strong
BOB, SPIN, SUCK, 2009
MARCELLA, 2009
SUITE OF FOUR COLLAGES FROM A NEW DAY IN A STRANGE LAND, 2009
Nellie Castan Gallery, South Yarra
Framed collage on archival paper, 60 x 80cm
Photos: Simon Strong
FLYTRAP, 2009
SPIDER LEGGED LILY, 2009
CATCHING THE SEED, 2009
BEETLE ROCK, 2009
A WOMAN'S HEART, 2009, Collage on archival paper, 78 x 58cm
TROPHY/ROOTS, 2009
Nellie Castan Gallery, Sneak Peak Exhibition,
Collages on archival paper, 78 x 58cm
YOU MAKE ME FEEL I, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL II, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL III, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL IV, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL V, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
THE CRAFT, 2006
Digital prints from collage on vinyl adhesive, acrylic yarn, latch-hook grid, machine & hand knitted candelabras, hand made frame: cardboard, tape, wound yarn.
The Craft was developed during a 2005-6 print residency at RMIT University curated by Richard Harding.
Just took the opportunity to draw links between textile patterns reproduced in print work and her normal practice of knitted sculptural installation. The repetition of pattern in various forms of printmaking is like knitting, where stitch by stitch the work comes into being. The background ‘wallpaper’ in Just’s ‘The Craft’ is created by repeating the same square of a found image of fabric over 100 times. Like stitches, these layered squares mesh to form the whole picture.
Though Just normally works with knitting’s association with women’s work and the psychological to exploit our tenuous relationship to landscape, ‘The Craft’ instead considers that, no matter how clichéd, crafts are female ‘power tools’. The title alludes to both craft’s transformative power, and its potential as a contemporary form of witchery.
part of the solo exhibition Inward Gathering, Nellie Castan Gallery South Yarra
Suite of 17 Collages on Archival Paper; Framed in Perspex boxes, 30 x 42cm each
BOMBSHELL, 2009
Studio 12, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Suite of Seven Collages on Archival Paper, 58 x 78cm each
Photos: Simon Strong
Kate Just’s new exhibition in Studio 12, Bombshell is a new series comprising of seven collages. The title draws on the “Bombshell Girl” or “pin-up” girls who were painted onto the sides of WWII planes, bombers, and their bombs. This series extends Just’s ongoing interest in the idea that women and ‘machines’ can be considered as potentially interchangeable within the male imagination, and as such Just has created her own suite of ‘bomb- shells.’
Virtually legless and armless though implying movement through their curved bases, handles and tubes, Just’s bombshells are anthropomorphic combinations, bringing together both ‘women’ and machines, though perhaps of the domestic, rather than war-waging, sort. These fabulous femmes are comprised of various categories of objects which have actual or historical associations with the feminine, including the natural, the domestic and the bodily. As Just states: “Each collage represents for me an archetypal (rather than stereotypical) notion of ideal femininity - that she is youthful, fertile, desirable, and useful.”
Furthering Just’s interest in the biological mechanisms of femininity, each of these collaged ‘bombshells’ has been named after the female brand-names of contraceptive pills. A chemical intervention in female biology that has both liberated and yet programmed the female body.
Mirena, Yasmin Alesse, Juliet, Estelle, Brenda and Diane are at your service.
GERTRUDE STUDIO ARTISTS EXHIBITION, 2009
Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces
Suite of 3 Collages in main gallery space and 1 above desk/office
Archival Paper, 58 x 78cm each
Photos: Simon Strong
BOB, SPIN, SUCK, 2009
MARCELLA, 2009
SUITE OF FOUR COLLAGES FROM A NEW DAY IN A STRANGE LAND, 2009
Nellie Castan Gallery, South Yarra
Framed collage on archival paper, 60 x 80cm
Photos: Simon Strong
FLYTRAP, 2009
SPIDER LEGGED LILY, 2009
CATCHING THE SEED, 2009
BEETLE ROCK, 2009
A WOMAN'S HEART, 2009, Collage on archival paper, 78 x 58cm
TROPHY/ROOTS, 2009
Nellie Castan Gallery, Sneak Peak Exhibition,
Collages on archival paper, 78 x 58cm
YOU MAKE ME FEEL I, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL II, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL III, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL IV, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
YOU MAKE ME FEEL V, 2008, collage on archival paper, 78cm (h) x 58cm (w)
THE CRAFT, 2006
Digital prints from collage on vinyl adhesive, acrylic yarn, latch-hook grid, machine & hand knitted candelabras, hand made frame: cardboard, tape, wound yarn.
The Craft was developed during a 2005-6 print residency at RMIT University curated by Richard Harding.
Just took the opportunity to draw links between textile patterns reproduced in print work and her normal practice of knitted sculptural installation. The repetition of pattern in various forms of printmaking is like knitting, where stitch by stitch the work comes into being. The background ‘wallpaper’ in Just’s ‘The Craft’ is created by repeating the same square of a found image of fabric over 100 times. Like stitches, these layered squares mesh to form the whole picture.
Though Just normally works with knitting’s association with women’s work and the psychological to exploit our tenuous relationship to landscape, ‘The Craft’ instead considers that, no matter how clichéd, crafts are female ‘power tools’. The title alludes to both craft’s transformative power, and its potential as a contemporary form of witchery.
