Deborah Hally - Lynda Wilson - Michelle Lee

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DEBORAH HALLY - LYNDA WILSON - MICHELLE LEE

Exhibition Opening THURSDAY 2 SEPTEMBER 6-8pm

Opening Address SALLY MANNALL, Acting MFA Coordinator, RMIT

Closing WEDNESDAY 29 SEPTEMBER

DEBORAH HALLY

In Deborah Hally’s current oeuvre, she continues to create domestic dream-spaces, exploring social and psychological experiences, both real and imagined.  This constructed reality sets the stage upon which she performs her ideas, where she begins to reveal ambiguous moods and open-ended narratives. Her characters are suspended in a world which is neither past, present nor future, and child-like states of innocence and illusion give the ordinary a sense of mystery.

In ‘The Subterraneans’, Deborah shows that ghosts of memory are always with us. Unreliable and elusive, they imprint the present with an undertone of all things past.  Fragments of other times and places can emerge in surprising ways, telling us stories which may or may not be true.

Prominent critics and publications, such as Art Monthly and Ashley Crawford, and most recently Jill Stowell, have explored her work:

“Luxuriant female hair is both provocative and as full of latent energy as the sea. Old chairs have the evocative presence of costume drama. Mysterious theatrics… [and] … Unsettling hints abound. It is perhaps surprising that this significant artist, after years of study as both TAFE and university, has not had more solo exhibitions.” Jill Stowell, Newcastle Herald, 2010

Deborah Hally was born in Victoria, and lives and works in country New South Wales.  In 2007 she received a Diploma of Fine Arts from Newcastle Art School and is currently undergoing a Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of Newcastle. Deborah was selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art's, Elizabeth Ann Mcgregor, for a Highly Commended in the Maitland Tertiary Art Prize and was the winner of the Dungog Art Show in both local and open categories. In 2008 she was part of the Off the Wall project at Art Melbourne, exhibited at Gilligan Grant Gallery and her work was reproduced in Art Monthly.  In 2009 she exhibited at Art Melbourne and in a group show, 'Three Fantasies', at Obscura Gallery.  In 2010, she was a finalist is both the Muswelllbrook Photographic Award and the Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize. She also exhibited with Obscura Gallery at Art Melbourne, in a group show at Watt Space, Newcastle and her work was reproduced in Shots Magazine.

LYNDA WILSON

Lynda Wilson’s artworks are photographic dioramas which use juxtapositions of found objects, photographic cut-outs and craft to create absurd landscape settings.  Retro and souvenir-like items specific to New Zealand and Australia are used to provoke memories of experiences, thoughts and places. To bring to mind the traditions and ‘ordinary’ events that have made up our lives thus far and continue to do so.  To illuminate aspects of domestic life and to bring attention to the smallest details that often fade into the past.

Lynda was born and raised in New Zealand in a small rural community during the 1970’s and 80’s. From a young age, she has had a strong interest in the arts and crafts. She currently resides in Hamilton City, New Zealand. Lynda is constantly involved in the local art community through exhibitions, assisting with the running of local galleries and tutoring in the Media Arts degree program at Wintec. She received a Bachelor of Media Arts from Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), Hamilton in 2004 and completed a Master of Fine Art through RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia in 2009.

Lynda is the recipient of numerous awards and honours, such as the 2007 New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Merit Award. She was also a finalist in the Trust Waikato Contemporary Art Award in both 2004 & 2006. She was awarded the Wintec Award for Excellence in Painting in both 2003 & 2004, as well as the Wintec Award for Excellence in Visual Arts in 2002.

Lynda has exhibited in two solo shows, at Ramp Gallery, Wintec, Hamilton this year, as well as Platform 01 Gallery, Hamilton in 2004. Lynda’s work has been exhibited in countless groups exhibitions, including La Mezz Gallery, Artpost, Platform 01 Gallery, Waikato University and Fat Gallery, all in Hamilton, as well as at RMIT, Melbourne.

MICHELLE LEE

Michelle Lee creates work with concepts that resemble her own intuitions towards the subjects in her life. Her images are considerably feminine, where female protagonists act as primarily manifestations of the self.

Frustrations, conformity, eccentricity, dreams and ideals are concepts Michelle often turns to in the creation of her allegorical narratives. She expresses that emotions and thoughts are fundamental to everyday life, where at times they are all consuming and temporarily blind the conscious state of mind. Like reading a diary out loud, her work imbues the sense of both vulnerability and pride.

Michelle keeps every aspect of her subjects in a highly controlled environment. She rarely works with wide angle lenses, as the designer in her finds it difficult to deal with distortion. She shies away from ambient light, preferring the effect of the flash. In addition to light, Michelle controls her characters in their environment, often building her own sets or miniature dollhouse rooms.

Michelle was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she completed a diploma in Multimedia Design. She began work as an Interactive Designer, which led her to become a producer in a commercial photography studio. In this role she stumbled across her own passion for photography and experimented with an old light box as her main source of light. She then traveled to Melbourne to complete a BA in Photography at RMIT. Her interests lay in fashion photography, portraiture and fine art. Upon graduation in 2009, she was awarded the Kallman Feital's High Achievement in a Professional Sphere award for outstanding work.

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