IRENE PAGRAM - FEBRUARY 2018
WINDOWSPACE-BEEAC FEBRUARY 2018
'Cool Burn'
Irene Pagram
Cool
Burn (detail) 2018
When Irene Pagram met her
artist hero John Wolseley, at the arc Yinnar Drawing Award in 2016 he
asked if she had a work in the show and when Pagram pointed it out and
tentatively proffered her copy of the catalogue of his NGV survey show, Landmarks
111, in the hope he might autograph it, Wolseley wrote: ‘For Irene,
distinguished artist’.
He confided to her – ‘You
distinguished yourself by caring. By caring enough to make art, to make art
about the landscape, and the environment, and about the state of things, and to
put your art out into the world, that others may think and perhaps care about
these things.’
_________________
Cool Burn, (2018), was inspired by visits to
the extraordinarily beautiful remnant grassland meadows of Cobra Killuc Reserve
in south west Victoria (see Flora Victoria’s facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/GrasslandsFloravic/ ).
Testament to land
management techniques practised over thousands of generations, the area is
park-like with stands of trees and swathes of grasses starred with myriad
jewel-coloured wildflowers in late Spring. In thinking about the writings of
Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage, together with such evidence of the beauty of
fire-managed landscape, it seemed evident to Pagram that a mosaic of
fuel-reduction cool burns are urgently required to address 200 years of land
management neglect. This WINDOWSPACE work is a testament to that need.
The
elements of Cool Burn depict the clean forest floor in winter where
orchids will soon appear, their germination aided by components of smoke. Tree
trunks show blackened evidence of a cool burn at their base, each with a hint
of an understory of wildflowers, small shrubs and vines that will reappear
along with the soft grasses of spring. Clean upper trunks reach skyward.
Evoking the cool burn flames
In a nod to a past life,
the tree trunks have been eco-printed onto disposable paper tablecloth, turning
this ephemeral product back into an artwork with something of the longevity our
forests deserve.
Forming the first tree trunks for Cool Burn
Pagram works with natural
dyes on silk, wool and paper, often to make a ground for drawing, or a base for
hand stitching. Having discovered India Flint’s publication Eco Colour
(2008), Pagram found there was a better way to do the natural dyeing she had
first learnt in the 1970s. Rather than using toxic metal powder mordants and
salt fixatives of the past, Flint has pioneered a bundling method of botanical
eco-printing using just water and the dye-pot as mordant. The results give
substantive colours reminiscent of the landscape where the leaves are gathered.
Utilising wind-falls, and a garden gathering of leaf litter are paramount. The
plant material can then be returned to the earth as compost or mulch. Nothing
harmful is discarded into the environment. This sustainable and eco-friendly
natural dyeing method harmonises perfectly with Pagram’s life-style in the
Otways hinterland. She is an eco-colour convert.
Pagram
exhibits locally and further afield: hand-stitched art cloths, graphite
drawings, framed textiles, eco-printed lengths of pure silk, artist’s books and
mixed media artwork.
It’s all
over Red Box, Baby Blue
A bright
winter’s night (detail)
Irene Pagram’s exhibition
month at WINDOWSPACE- BEEAC will include a discussion of eco-printing methods.
Free floor talk on Saturday
17 February at 2pm.
All welcome.
Imminent local events:
As part of the 17-18
March 2018 Colac-Otway Arts Trail Irene
Pagram will have a weekend pop-up studio at Echidna
House, Kawarren
Reserve, 2 Kawarren East Road Kawarren VIC 3249 https://www.colacotwayartstrail.com/kawarren.html
Pagram teaches handmade
recycled papermaking to small groups. The next workshop is at Gellibrand Community
House 10 February 2018 –
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