Exhibition

  City of Light   

  KATE PIEKUTOWSKI    

City of Light reflects on my most recent Artist Residency to Spain, May 2019. It focusses on my experience in Europe, cultural and social influences, contemporary printmaking practice and a strong association to place. The artist residency was isolating, being situated between two small cities, but it allowed me to write my own narrative and become the protagonist. It forced me to meditate over the loss of my grandmother and my relentless conflict between my Australian and Polish identity. I found that memories of drinking wine with the locals, bicycle rides and visiting the farmers market unveiled themselves as motifs within my etching, reminding me of the past. The use of quirky bicycles, suitcases, red umbrellas and dresses capture the playfulness yet obscure translation of travelling to a personal arcadia.

Themes of memory and nostalgia are present in this exhibition, through the thick plate tone, darkness and shades of grey. The subtlety of the pale architecture is not dissimilar to the stained lace curtain in my Grandmothers kitchen or a hazy recollection of Warsaw in the rain. The melancholic grey tones are what divide the light from the dark and the use of multiple steel etching plates create a strong distinction between background and foreground. Through my personal practice as well as the influence of new techniques from the artist residency, my aim is to capture the lightness and the darkness within the city scape, dividing and uniting two worlds.