Paula Dunlop
CALL-RESPONSE-RESPONSE
Paula Dunlop and Cody Wood
2021
Xerox prints, steel and glass found objects, steel chain, glass beads, thread
Size variable, approx. 60cm x 100cm
Call - Response - Response is a conversational exchange of images and objects. Dunlop and Wood each took turns issuing a prompt to the other (Wood sharing moments captured via phone camera, Dunlop, material remnants from her home studio) to instigate a back-and-forth exchange of the visuals, objects and materials present in their lives.
The result: seven stories composed of images and assemblages that speak of presence and place, acknowledgement and recognition — simple but meaningful impressions of the artists’ domestic surroundings and everyday work environments.
Call - Response - Response is about two strangers making connections in a spirit of openness and curiosity, and finding a common ground in their shared appreciation for the small, the quiet, the overlooked and the everyday.
A work commissioned for the group exhibition Mutual Intent, Brisbane Powerhouse.
Formation Studies
2020
Glass beads, silver beads, stainless steel rings, stainless steel chain, thread
Size variable, approx. 20cm x 20cm x 3cm
Ball chain is braided and spliced, and beads are woven into a series of small objects. Their presence is ambiguous; they appear as models for larger design works, or as intimate, hand-held objects-cum-jewellery such as prayer beads or worry beads. Their arrangements suggest molecular formations, spiral growth patterns or clustered celestial bodies. The studies also point to the grounding or steadying potential of tactile ‘things’ for both makers and users.
ADAPT
2021
Steel ball chain, bed sheets, magnets, wire rope
180cm x 250cm
In a time of quarantines and lockdowns, ADAPT shows us the collapse of the neat separations between work and home. Bed sheets, steel ball-chain, studio traditions, window-dressings, creative practice in home spaces — all come together gently, magnetically.
ADAPT meditates on the forces that condition our home lives and work lives; on the conventions that privilege or idealise certain workspaces over others; and on the give-and-take that constitutes our relationships with people, materials, and spaces.
TUFT prints
2020
Toned cyanotype and pencil on paper
19cm x 28cm
Cyanotype photograms of TUFT (2019), created through multiple exposures of the object using carefully managed combinations of both direct sunlight and sunlight diffused through white bedsheets.