GALLERY ONE

I’m OK, You’re OK

Merryn Hull

Friday 5 – Saturday 20 February 2016

The title of the exhibition explores the idea of ‘being’ and references Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis concept of 4 levels of OK-ness. It does this by creating the opportunity to look into our lives from the outside and builds on the idea that ordinary things can become quite special if viewed in particular ways. Ordinary objects are transformed into art objects so that aluminium, plastic sheet, foil, coloured wrap and tape expand elements of daily life into a broader narrative. The work is composed of a series of framed views and reflective surfaces which locate and also distort the viewer’s sense of contemporary realism. It does this through the use of the ‘window’, the mirror and the digitised image which act as framing mechanisms for a momentary, found connection to a different though recognisable reality.

The current show at Airspace Projects is the first in a series of three evolving exhibitions which utilise installation, construction, digitised images and painting to explore autobiographical narrative. This first installation identifies some of the key influences on the artist’s life in terms of her family, career and the desire to move beyond Minimalist painting to find her own uniquely contemporary artistic language. The work attempts to build a strong relationship with the viewer by encouraging found views within a recontextualised environment. The grid, a favoured motif reflects the significant influence, both positive and negative of the Bauhaus on her work.

Merryn Hull recently completed a B.FA (Hons) and MFA at the National Art School and is currently a PhD candidate at the Sydney College of the Arts. She was an architect in a previous career. Hull is a contemporary painter whose work questions traditional models and prescribed ideologies employed in the definition of traditional painting. This current work explores the relationship created between narrative and viewer in contemporary painting.

View Merryn Hull’s website here:  http://www.merrynhull.com

Image: Merryn Hull, I’m OK, You’re OK, 2015. Installation view. Image credit: Merryn Hull