‘Nicole Ellis Artifact’, 10 July – 12 August 2012, James Dorahy Project Space, Sydney, Australia
Artifact is an exhibition of new work by Nicole Ellis, which continues the discussion between different histories, industrially designed fabrics and painting. Discarded factory samples and everyday items such as bed covers and cotton sheets are dismantled and recombined with linen remnants, worn out and encrusted with paint and other residues. Large-scale wall works sit behind glass and three-dimensional forms lean against the wall or rest on shelves.
As a form of historical recycling, this mixing of the old and new looks to contemporary archaeology to reveal signs of painting’s recent history and the connections between design and art.
Nicole Ellis