Visual Arts
Julia Robinson
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"My work consists primarily of sculptural objects and installations which in general focus on universal themes present in classic European fairy tales and stories. The quirky logic underlying these seemingly simple stories provides rich fodder for me to tease out and extrapolate on. Often my work involves fabric, thread and sewing; materials which reflect my former involvement with dressmaking and costuming and an interest in the theatrical. However, I enjoy working in a range of media pertinent to my themes and have a background in painting. I like to play with the unknowns in traditional fairy stories, unearthing peculiar elements which are frequently overlooked. In this way I can create new narratives and set up unusual and often comical relationships between well-known characters.
This work, Placemats for the Wolf, Girl and Grandmother continues my current line of interest in instances of eating in folklore; the power of the eater and the fear of becoming the eaten. They are intended to be a humorous comment on the appetites of the three main characters from the story Little Red Riding Hood. The images draw on the quaint, slightly stylised images of instruction books and old illustrations, where some items are drawn quite realistically and others such as the ham and pie are drawn from our idea of what they look like.
In the placemat for the wolf, we see the natural prey for a wolf (mice, rats, deer and sheep etc), but also literary references to what a wolf eats: girls and their grandmothers, ducks (from Peter and the Wolf), pigs (from the Three Little Pigs) and various other victims from stories. I also enjoy setting up comical visual connections such as the pig next to the ham and bacon, the grandma's ball of wool next to the sheep and the rabbit next to the pie.
In the placemat for the girl, we see the stuff that little girls are made of; sugar and spice of course, poisoned apples, porridge (that's not too hot or cold but just right!), gingerbread and grandmothers. This last reference comes from an early version of the story in which the wolf kills the grandmother, and induces Red Riding Hood to drink her blood and eat her flesh.
The final placemat plays on a highly stereotypical (and somewhat cheeky) notion of a grandmother. In a time before dentures maybe, she is seen as a tea drinking, broth eating, scone, pie and cake baking little old lady, who is prey it seems even to her own kin." Julia Robinson, 2005
BIO
Julia Robinson was born in Adelaide in 1981. Her art practice consists primarily of sculptural objects and installations which are inspired by the quirky logic and scenarios found in fairy tales and legends. Since graduating from art school in 2002, Julia has exhibited extensively, both locally and interstate. Some recent exhibitions include eat,wolf at the Project Space, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia; Hatched at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art; Petrified Nature at Downtown Art Space; Thousand-fold (with Roy Ananda) at 151 Hindley Street during the Adelaide Fringe Festival and Primavera at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Julia is currently lecturing in Visual Language at Adelaide Central School of Art and creating new work in TwinBEE studios, St Peters.
Julia has exhibited as part of Carclew's Fifth Floor project.
