DUELUX

Emma Finneran

Opening 23.07.14 6-9pm
Artist Talks 26.07.14 2-4m

DUELUX is a body of work that pays homage to the humble drop sheet. Drop sheets, in all their thick, porous, glory, have a prescribed function in life: to catch the excess paint from Mum’s feature wall, to loyally serve and protect the ground beneath from heinous Dulux-decisions, to never be washed, to be rendered forgotten, formless, shapeless, degraded - to be dropped.

In my practice, I am motivated by the opportunity to re-animate drop sheets into what I consider their natural conclusions: paintings. I am eternally on the hunt for pre-“loved” drop sheets. The incidental marks are the beginnings of any painting I produce anew - the existing splatters of “Egg Shell White” or “Sunflower Yellow”, are the characters, catalysts and provocations of a painting yet-to-be-realised. My practice is a dialogue between myself and the anonymous former owner/splatterer of the drop sheets that I utilise – an unrequited exchange that romantically recalls the figurehead of many Australian childhood artistic aspirations, Mr. Squiggle. In emancipating the drop sheet from the floor to the wall, I intend to celebrate and foreground the casual beauty of its existing composition.