Wall Arms & Table Legs
Belle Bassin, Allona Goren, Minhi Park, Meredith Turnbull and Manon van Kouswijk. Curated by Meredith Turnbull and Manon van Kouswijk
8 November – 16 December 2023
Window, ledge, shelf, table, space, object, surface, skin.
Wall Arms & Table Legs features new work by five Naarm based experimental artists. These artworks traverse the interconnected relationships between space, objects, the body and ornament.
Wall Arms & Table Legs responds to the encounter of space and objects determined by how we move through, structure and adorn our bodies and the spaces they navigate and inhabit. Belle Bassin’s drawings convene between representation and abstraction: decorative forms merge with line work and motifs inspired by Parisian architecture; Allona Goren’s sculptural works utilize discarded materials from the built environment as body ornament, determined by aspects of ergonomic and architectural standards; Minhi Park’s ceramics evoke dwellings, between maze and house-like structures; Meredith Turnbull’s decorative wall painting is punctuated by delicate silver linear curls. Manon van Kouswijk’s series of glass-beaded necklaces form object and clothing-like adornments for the wall.
About the artists: Belle Bassin is an experimental visual artist, her works begin in drawing and evolve into a multitude of mediums including; painting, sculptural installations, video works, performance and choreography. Belle holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from the Victorian College of the Arts (2007), and a Masters in Fine Art from Monash University (2016). Recently she has been the recipient of the Rupert Bunny Foundation Visual Arts Fellowship, which supported residencies at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris and The International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), New York and she undertook a nomadic residency in Greece, funded through Creative Victoria.
Allona Goren is a multi-disciplinary artist. Her work explores diverse materials with a focus on subverting traditional jewellery value through unconventional materials. She is concerned with ideas of play expressed in objects and jewellery outcomes. Allona graduated with first class Honours in Interior Architecture from RMIT in 1994. After working in the UK in Interior Design and Styling fields, Allona undertook a Bachelor of Fine Art, Gold and Silversmithing and Honours at RMIT in 2014. Her works have been collected by the NGV and are featured in the McMillan Jewellery collection.
Minhi Park is a Korean artist living and making ceramics in Naarm/Melbourne. Minhi deeply admires and has great affection for the history, traditions and cultures of Korea where she was born and raised. Minhi’s work reflects her fascination with natural lines and imperfection, as well as her appreciation and respect in raw and traditional forms that are found in old Korean cultures such as heritage buildings, monuments, crafts or even daily necessities that were used in the old days. Minhi studied ceramics at Kunkuk University in Seoul and travelled and worked in several professions before restarting her ceramics career in her third year in Australia. Minhi has also collaborated with Super-Ling and Vue de Monde to create exclusive plate-ware, reinventing the Korean wooden Soban for the iconic Korean dining experience Chae.
Meredith Turnbull is an artist, curator and writer. Her practice focuses on the world of things as the form-creating basis of culture. She is interested in making and material, and the experiential and temporal register of forms. She has developed major projects in Australia for Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne University, the Centre for Contemporary Photography, the National Gallery of Victoria and Heide Museum of Modern Art. Meredith holds a Bachelor of Arts and Honours in Art History from La Trobe University (2000), a Bachelor of Fine Art majoring in Gold and Silversmithing from RMIT University (2005) and a PhD in Fine Art in the field of sculpture and spatial practice from Monash University (2016). Meredith’s work is in the collections of the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne, Monash University Museum of Art and Heide Museum of Modern Art. She is the Director of Alta Forma and is represented by Daine Singer, Melbourne.
Manon van Kouswijk is a Dutch artist and contemporary jeweller who lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne and Toora, Australia. She studied fine art and contemporary jewellery at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where later on she worked as Head of the Jewellery Department before moving to Australia in 2010. Manon views her practice as an ongoing exploration of the potential for jewellery to happen. Her findings are mediated through the making of objects, through photography, drawing, artist books and exhibitions. Manon’s work is exhibited in galleries and museums and is part of private and public collections worldwide. Manon is represented by Gallery Funaki, Melbourne.
Wall Arms & Table Legs, will open to the public on Wednesday 8 November at 11am. Please join us for the opening celebration on Saturday 11 November 2-4pm.
