AUSTRALIAN GALLERIES
DERBY STREET
HEATHER SHIMMEN
Exhibition Dates: 13 May - 1 June 2014
35 Derby Street Collingwood VIC 3066
Open 7 days 10am to 6pm
Media Release
Heather Shimmen’s work goes beyond traditional printmaking techniques through her construction of intricately detailed and highly technical multimedia works incorporating linocuts. Shimmen fuses subject and technique by layering media with fractured and reassembled imagery creating engaging works of beauty and intrigue. Each work is unique, even within an edition, with variations in the hand colouring, cutting, printing and stitching of the various elements within the work.
The now redundant biological classification, Insectivoria (describing mammals which feed primarily on insects) forms the basis for this exhibition, with Shimmen blurring the distinction between insect and mammal resulting in hypothetical, hybrid fantastical creatures. Shimmen’s work is eclectic by nature, playing with relationships between human and animal worlds, sourcing imagery discovered in all manner of places, from reproductions in scientific publications to actual insects found under decaying logs.
Shimmen often incorporates entomological elements with the female figure inspired by folklore and historical tales. Central to this exhibition is an investigation into true, but often preposterous, tales originating from the Australian bush and high seas, resulting in stories translated into a series of portrait cameos that evoke the past and hint at a possible future. “Distortion and refraction within the images are but part of a continued exploration of relationships and interrelationships between the female form/s and the natural world. Responses to this world - of the unpleasant but often minuscule living being - are one of an innate but irrational fear. These women protagonists do not live in a cocooned place separated from this uncomfortable domain but are intertwined around and within it. They are extraordinary creatures.” – Heather Shimmen 2014
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