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THE
FIELD
CARO LIDDELL
By Michael Fox |
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“When
I settled in Australia, I started to look at the world as a
place enveloping and keeping me, as opposed to a place to
escape from.
Living in the countryside fields and paddocks are never far
away. We use the term field in many ways, there is field
of vision,
the depth of field in photography, working in the field for
professionals and we field things as a method of protection.
As a word it means the same but as a concept it has a wide and
varied use all of which (like rural fields) are interconnected
in some way.
Even though Australia is now my home in spirit and body, and
is where I can truly work in my ideal environment, it is still
necessary to take oneself out of that environment and into
the unknown. During a visit to China I saw that any flat area
of
land that wasn’t built on, was planted with crops. These
extensive field networks create a myriad of dynamics and patterns
that please the eye and as a result they have been heavily recorded
in photography. However in motion, these fields are quite clear
in the presentation of a definitive vision of the relentless
physical labour that put them there. It was this experience that
drove me to delve further into the concept of the field, as a
reflection of life’s needs and desires.”
Caro Liddell
August 2004
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“The
Field” is a body of work derived primarily from the experiences
of travel to southern China in late 2003 shortly before her first
major Australian exhibition held at Metro Arts, Brisbane and
coordinated by Fox Galleries. It is also a term steeped in Australian
art history, having been adopted by Alun Leach-Jones to describe
his 1968 exhibition.
In a similar way Caro is drawing a parable to the physicality
of her subject as well as exploring the philosophical experiencing
of objects through intellectual intuition or inference rather
than interpretation. Viewing a work such as “Mountain” one
cannot escape its unfathomable scope, in a similar way that European
artists of the nineteenth century interpreted the Australian
landscape.
In fact Liddell seems to have been destined to live and work
in Australia. Through a series of events over the course of a
decade her work became more associated with what she describes
as “the incredible natural and spiritual elements Australia
possesses” as her future led her into greater contact with
Australia, Australians and Australian-ness.
She first traveled here in 1989 for a six-month stay in the Northern
Territory, before she had commenced any formal training in the
visual arts. Caro spent as much time as possible with Aboriginal
communities, who took her into their confidence and showed her
their ancestral territories rich with rock paintings and carvings.
She was captivated by their art and their stories and took these
experiences back to London where she embarked on a career as
a studio printer and etcher. In 1991 she exhibited a series of
work directly influenced by the indigenous images viewed during
this first stay.
Australian art dealer and cultural attaché Rebecca Hossack
first noticed Liddell’s work in London in 1990. Through
this association Caro developed a significant reputation in the
United Kingdom over the next decade as she completed a Masters
degree in Barcelona, Spain, had her work acquired by private
and public collections and finally was awarded residencies in
Australia. These residencies would eventually see her take up
permanent domicile in this country.
During the course of this decade, Caro became concerned with
the fragility and transience of life, mirroring her own personal
health issues. In 1996 after being awarded the White & Bowker
Purchase Award in London, she stated “my paintings and
prints are concerned with the idea of a transmigration of the
soul.” (1) Hossack said of her work “her pictures
are intricate palimpsests, recording the shifting flows of existence.” (2)
Vanessa Jackson, Head of Painting at the Winchester School of
Art commented “her work has continually celebrated the
mythic and the metaphoric whilst maintaining a contemporary relationship
with her own personal experience.” (3)
A constant theme in Caro’s work is the investigation of
space and how we inhabit and move between these spaces. In 1998
she undertook research at the Wellcome Institute in London into
ancient scientific visions of the body, its physical – and
its spiritual – mechanism. The resulting body of work continued
her concern with the concept of “crossing over” or “transmigration”;
from inside to outside, man to animal, body to spirit. (4) She
has commented “as a painter the image is everything so
I find it difficult to describe my work in words. However the
recurring aspect of my painting that I cannot escape is space,
emotional space, spiritual, physical and geographical space.”
Her first Australian residency followed the "Transmigrations
and Other Journeys" exhibition. This was a three week stay
at Alice Springs in the Northern Territory co-ordinated by Hossack
and Coo-ee Aboriginal Art. At the time she was just as occupied
with the physical challenge as she was with the artistic challenge.
Working and living in a tin shed, she drew and sketched while
enduring the unaccustomed heat, insects and spiders. (5) The
vastness of the Australian outback, to which she had been so
attracted during her first visit a decade earlier, influenced
her paintings and she found herself beginning to work on a much
larger scale than before.
“
Given the combined weight of wood and canvas, the sheer naked
physicality required to take on such a large area is a challenge
in itself. However, combined with the visual challenge, it is
a challenge that drives me”, she says.
Her second Australian residency was awarded by the Arthur Boyd
Trust at Bundanon in 1999. She returned the following year, and
in both visits focused on the Shoalhaven River. The sketches
and paintings created here reflected her vision and feelings
as she immersed herself in the natural beauty of the countryside.
Her work seems to be asking questions reflecting her own personal
situation. Are rivers barriers or gateways? Are the sand bars
islands of security or prisons of isolation? Undoubtedly the
decision to permanently migrate to Australia, made whilst at
Bundanon, influenced her thinking at the time. The resulting
works are grounded yet ethereal and urge contemplation.
Caro made good use of her time at Bundanon, and sketched and
drew each day of her stay in order to “keep a constant
connection between the eyes, the spirit and the image”.
The large canvases, which are the signature marks of her work,
are derived from this intimate process. She firstly builds up
a series of studies by way of drawings, prints and smaller oil
paintings. Next she produces a series of oil sketches on both
paper and canvas to achieve a particular colour or patina. “Like
the drawn line colour is a personal signature. I work with oil
paint as its natural origins give the colours a vitality that
is incomparable.” Finally, the physical and visual challenge
of producing the large canvas paintings, with their complex layers
of oil, wax and form is undertaken.
Figures have been recurrent within Caro’s work. “Whilst the abstract
scape produces a vale of colour and form that is pleasing to the eye, I find
it is the human element that has the ability to reach out and communicate with
the viewer.” At Bundanon, she explored the interaction between man and
nature as her husband swam in the slow moving rain-misted Shoalhaven River. In
other works, such as “Thro’ The Black” the figures seem to
be wandering between an emotional and physical landscape.
In 2002 Caro finally moved to Australia and established a studio in the beautiful
Minyon Falls area near Lismore in northern New South Wales. The following year
she travelled to southern China shortly before her first major Australian exhibition, “Palimpsest” held
at Metro Arts, Brisbane.
The physicality of this subject matter carried over into the creation of the
works for “The Field” exhibition. The pastel and graphite works on
paper are perhaps the most accessible of these artworks, however closer examination
reveals that they too have been subjected to the force of the artist, “achieved
by an assault upon the thickly pastelled surface, either with a hammer or a piece
of graphite, and even a fistful of nuts”. (6)
“
The Field” exhibition also saw the culmination of a long-held desire to
work in both a sculptural and installation manner. Though “The 12 Apostles” may
appear on the surface to be Judeo-Christian, its message is also timely to the
age we all find ourselves in. Ultimately, the deeper investigations of the human
soul is the transcending quality of Liddell’s work that connects the viewer
to the image in art the writer John Birmingham described as both “beautiful
and disturbing” (7).
References:
(1) “Lawyers name artist winner”, The Extra newspaper, London, August
8 1996
(2) “Transmigrations and Other Journeys”, media release, Rebecca
Hossack Gallery, October 1998
(3) Jackson, Vanessa, reference for Caro Liddell, May 5 1997
(4) Elwes, Luke, Galleries, London Gallery Guide, October 1998.
(5) Till, Crispin, “Caro’s at home living in shed”, Centralian
Advocate, January 22 1999
(6) Hildreth, Digby, “Human endurance on a grand scale”, Courier-Mail,
August 19 2004
(7) Birmingham, John, note to Caro Liddell, Palimpsest exhibition, Metro Arts,
Brisbane November 7 2003. |
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