Co-existence of Incongruence: Heather Stewart

29 June - 24 July

Opening Saturday 2 July 4pm-6pm

Over the last few years Heather Stewart has increasingly adopted a multidisciplinary practice to find a way forward to understand how we alter and contemporize our idea of normality. The exhibition at F Project is ostensibly eclectic but united in one idea about human diversity or rather a question about how we alter our view of what is normal. The human heads and bodies are not necessarily gender specific although historical references to archetypal female imagery provide the viewer with an element of familiarity. Stewart is trying to explore how much incongruity the mind finds acceptable in order to take on new information and alter its perception of what it means to be human.

In the small sculptures, she has tried to balance the abstraction of anthropomorphic tree forms with mimetic clay heads, shoulders and sometimes feet and hands. In their entirety the visual language of all the sculptures, including the busts exhibit a disparity in colour, materiality and form, the white clay contrasting with the shellacked tree forms; clay against perspex.

The collages comprise a variety of juxtaposed images taken from popular and disparate sources; comics, magazines, tissue box designs etc. Stewart aims to marry the known with the unknown; the random with the familiar, in order to convince the viewer of the validity of the forms. Art historical references and mythological identities such as the figure of Flora, and the Greek Muses provide a stabilizing focus point and hopefully some element of aesthetic beauty.

Stewart says; Initially I wanted to reconcile the evident material disparities. At best I’ve aimed for a serendipitous co-existence of incongruence.

01. Florescence | Collage, drawing graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 72x55cm $900

02. Study of Dancer #2 | Collage, drawing graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford |72x55cm $700

03. Forwarding | drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 56x45cm $520

04. Study of Singer | drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 72x55cm $650

05. Seeking Solace | drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 56x45cm $520

06. Red and Blue shining Through | mixed mediums | 42x23x23cm $1300

07. Spring | Collage on card | 52x52cm $600

08. The Man in the Boy | Sculpture, ceramic and wire | 29x30x23cm $1400

09. Without Guile | Drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 72x55cm $650

10. Taking a Turn | Drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 56x45cm $520

11. Hermaphrodite | Sculpture, eucalyptus and clay on English Oak | $1300

12. Inwardly Deeply | Sculpture, mixed mediums | 36x38x24cm $1600

13. After Boticelli: Flora | Collage, drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on card | 70x70cm $900

14. Transparent | Painting, oil on linen | 152x90cm $1800

15. The Contrarian | Painting, oil on linen | 152x90cm $1800

16. Dear and Troubled | Painting, oil on linen | 152x90cm $1800

17. Luminence | Sculpture, mixed mediums | 30x23x23cm $1200

18. Study of Dancer #1 | Drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 72x55cm $650

19. Man with Helmet | Sculpture, bisque clay | 25x20x19cm $1200

20. Study of Dear and Troubled | Drawing, graphite and coloured pencil on Saunders Waterford | 72x55cm $650

21. Spiked | Sculpture, bisque clay | 30x23x23 $1300

22. Day Dreaming | Sculpture, eucalyptus and clay on English oak | 66x46x30cm $1200

23. Terpischore | Sculpture, eucalyptus and clay on English oak | 63x34x31cm $1100

24. Euterpe | Sculpture, eucalyptus and clay on Tasmanian oak | 56x56x28cm $1100

25. Flora | Sculpture, eucalyptus and clay on Tasmanian oak | 54x23x28cm $1100

Share