SILVER Leaf Art Box at Merricks will present a solo exhibition of new works on paper and a project-box installation by Mornington Peninsula artist Rosie Weiss, 22 May-13 June.
The exhibition will coincide with Rosie Weiss – Collected Works showing at Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, highlighting a suite of recently acquired pieces that provide an overview of her work 1979-2018.
Weiss completed a Police Point artist’s residency in 2015, and in 2019 exhibited a large-scale installation titled On the Edge 1979-2019. It was part of In the Valley, a group exhibition about climate change at MPRG. Weiss has exhibited widely in Australia and overseas.
Silver Leaf’s Penelope Gebhardt described the upcoming show as “quite remarkable”. “Rosie is a much loved and renowned artist in our region.”
Ms Gebhardt said the depiction of plant remnants had been central to the artist’s practice for many years. The two distinct series come together in the current project, both created during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020.
Weiss said: “The works from this time have an almost playful thread for me: the fire plants are there, but there are also other images appearing. A seahorse my father left me, an image of an unfurling fern I took 30 years ago, and the repeated forms of ever spreading couch grass … images close to home, with a concentrated focus, but also an experimental freedom.”
Ms Gebhardt said Weiss visited the East Gippsland bushfire areas early last year and collected charred plant fragments that recur throughout this body of work. She said the artwork: Do you still love me? (asked the earth), was a poignant question the artist poses in a poem about the work of the same title, encapsulating the essence of this exhibition and cutting to the heart of our relationship with the earth.
A series of smaller works titled Breath Fracture sit alongside the fire pieces. These are in response to the death of the artist’s father last year, and delve into bodily notions of mortality, loss and renewal.
“Plant fragments float and glide in visceral internal spaces, drawing connections between the physical structures of plants and those of the body. Weiss’s use of pigments and metallic inks create an iridescence that is mysterious, liquid and alive”, Ms Gebhardt said.
Silver Leaf Art Box is at 3361 Frankston-Flinders Road, Merricks. Call 0422 132 525 or visit silverleaf-artbox.com.au
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 18 May 2021
