“Something Old – Something New”
A collaboration of Artists: Nada Murphy & Jacky Cheng, on now at Kidogo Arthouse.
Something Old- Something New: a lesson, a tradition, a passion, of love, of marriage, of cultures and continuing bonds.
Nada & Jacky came to be friends through a common respect for those who walked before us and the oldest cultures. Something Old- Something New reflects on how the respective cultural heritage of each of these artists has shaped the new works. Indeed we are asked to consider what might be valued in the old and how that might leave us with new directions.
Nada is Perth based artist, and a fourth generation Australian woman born in Ivanhoe Victoria. The first of her ancestors arrived in Australia in the mid 1800’s. Her genetic roots from both grandmothers lie in Scotland and with Norway, Finland and England for her grandfathers. In Nada’s work she has explored how culture can be expressed as a repeating pattern, often just outside of conscious awareness in our relationships and as undercurrent running from generation to generation. The work also expresses how the vehicle of cultural transfer occurs and may be passed on by the artful use or our hands and minds. Knitting lace is a Scottish tradition brought to the Australian bush to swathe the new infant in the knitted shawl. Early patterns were not written but simply handed on as the object of care. Patterns also inherent in our social fabric are like the rose transported from around the globe to an Australian context. Nada interprets these patterns in glass, painting & drawing, and in textile.
Jacky is a Malaysian Chinese artist currently based in Broome, Northwest of WA. Her practice morphed from her love for architecture and the built environment as well as the concept of ethnomathematics – the cultural activity and memories of home, country and relationship. In Jacky’s work she explores the simplicity of ‘making and doing’, something her grandmother instilled in her childhood. Folding hundreds of lightweight bamboo joss paper for cultural festivities in one sitting instilled a yearning for her to reconnect with her past which reflects in her current practice with paper cutting. Basic shapes play an integral start to every piece, as all things are a form or shape. It is an amalgamation of all those inspirations that gives each piece its rightful story. The order and sequence developed is a process of initial ideas that Jacky does not see the end of – much like reminiscing about the journey and not the destination.
For Nada & Jacky it is a joy to work together. Come to visit them in the gallery to see how they explore working on a project together.