KERRIE POLINESS

PAINTINGS & TREES

MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL

'PROBE'- HERRING ISLAND

Kerrie Poliness was also commissioned by Parks Victoria to participate in 'Probe' an exhibition curated by Maudie Palmer for the Melbourne International Festival.

The exhibition was held on Herring Island a Parks Victoria park on the Yarra River. Artists were invited to design and create temporary outdoor artworks to create environments within the parameters of the island.

Herring Island is being developed as a venue for permanent and temporary environmental contemporary artworks and exhibitions.

The work was created at Pipemakers Park a collaboration of Parks Victoria Parks towards a cultural outcome.

Paintings and trees.

The work titled 'Paintings and trees.' consisted of:100 paintings: red oil paint, clear perspex and fishing line, Dimensions: 3mm x 403mm x 568mm.

This work is a homage to the individuality of trees. Rather than a traditional 'painting of a tree', these paintings are designed to be 'placed in a tree'. These paintings hung in trees are an attempt to create a new relationship between paintings and trees. All of the paintings are the same colour and size. The uniformity of the paintings and the particular size and proportion have been selected to best accentuate the individuality and character of any tree. Pipemakers Park was the perfect studio-testing-ground for this work, to find the right size, colour, shape and proportion, one that would sit comfortably and interact with trees, and not dominate or disappear.

The paintings were made in the studio at Pipemakers Park with a lot of help from Clare Hart and Debra Harding. As my daughter Phoebe was born six weeks before this exhibition Clare and Debra's help was appreciated very much. When the paintings were not drying quickly enough Museum staff came to the rescue moving them to a sunny spot just outside of the Visitor Centre. This lengthy procession, looked from a distance like people accompanied by floating red diamonds. Staff and associates at the Museum always seem to pull together to help each other with projects. There is quite a lot of crossing of 'specialist boundaries' which is one of the reasons I find the Museum such an interesting place to work.

Kerrie Poliness