Exhibition
Midnight in Paris
KATE PIEKUTOWSKI
Midnight in Paris is an exhibition that responds to personal experiences, memories and travels in France. Through the historic medium of etching, the imagery reflects on the marriage between identity and place, creating a somewhat homage to the decadent history of Europe. Drawing back to my Polish ancestry and background, the imagery continues to evoke an emotional post-war dystopia whilst exploring castles of the Loire Valley, sunflower fields in the south of France and Parisian stylization. Motifs have greatly influenced this exhibition and folk motifs including the peacock, folk dance, shoes, painting and flowers are evident. Tasmanian flora has also become a new element within the work and acts as a link between the past and a way of linking two homelands together.
Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ has been very inspirational for this body of work as the film explores a nostalgia and yearning for the past. His evocative narrative allows an audience to fall into another time and by doing so allow us to feel something unique just for a moment, fulfilling that sense of emptiness. These multi-layered etchings aim to take back the audience to another time or place through the brooding plate tone and depth in colour palette. Each print is unique in its own right; however, they are grouped in small editions of unique states. In saying this, each piece remains individual in colour, tone, hand-colour and layering. This exhibition ultimately has become a personal journey of identity, romanticism and the memory of French culture and Europe.