Louise Weaver

Louise Weaver
Australian, born 1966; lives and works in Melbourne

Behind the scenes 2019
synthetic polymer emulsion on linen
Courtesy of the artist and Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney

Artist statement:

My propositional and experimental painting Behind the scenes explores environmental, social and feminist concerns, as well as notions of temporality and transformation through a hybrid zone of texture, surface and materiality.

In constructing a single ‘membrane’ of paint adhered to a canvas support, I seek to blur the line between the natural (the artist’s hand) and the artificial, to create a work that is suggestive of both landscape and abstraction—a poetic response to witnessing the destruction caused by cataclysmic fire due to climate change, including memories of living in Western Victoria (as a teenager) of the Ash Wednesday Bushfire 1983.

From the charcoal black and glowing embers, two tiny yellow petals emerge towards the bottom right of the composition, forming a resolute gesture of renewal, possibility and hope.