SALA 2017

Exhibition Opening Friday August 4 6pm-8pm

Opening Speaker Greg Donovan

With guest DJ Driller Jet Armstrong

‘Both, and Neither’ is a visual arts exhibition by Adelaide Hills Artist Wendy Dixon-Whiley. In addition to already completed works, there will be multiple new works to be completed during the month of August and progressively installed in the exhibition space. The artist will be located and working onsite on Sundays and Mondays within the Gallery. Creating these works onsite will allow the public to engage with the creative process and as a result understand the act of making, however, the main highlight of this exhibition will be a large scale painting installation to be hung on the western tower of the building.

 The layers of this external work on the building, to be painted on a sheet of vinyl measuring approximately 8m high x 2m wide, will reference but also cover what is underneath. This style of painting hints at form but also retains a lack of recognisability and shape. The act of obscuring an element serves to highlight its partial absence; it strains to break through and be seen. In this way, this is also why the works take on forms somewhat reminiscent of creatures released from the subconscious. This process of responding to the underlying layers and brushwork will result in unexpected forms and pictorial scripts as harsh edges are softened, texture added and forms altered or obscured. What was originally present still exists, albeit in a corrupted form.

 An internal visual universe unconfined by rules or restraints, my imagination is captured by the absurd, the silly and irreverent. Somewhere in the space that exists between contemporary and street art exists my work;  characterised by a bright& bold style with a sense of humour, but which also contains just a hint of menace and cynicism, which hides behind a friendly outward appearance.

                                                                Wendy Dixon Whiley - 2017