University of Melbourne Art in the Library: Past Exhibitions

March-April 2005

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Jen Hargrave

Artist Statement:

It is amazing how little detail is needed for the audience to receive the idea when a painter depicts a scene. The British painter Francis Bacon (1909 – 1992) described the effect as “sensation without the boredom of its conveyance.” I have always appreciated Bacon's ability to tease out the particular texture and subtlety of a focal figure, while the surrounding picture recedes as atmospheric cloud, often defined by as little as a simple horizon line.

For his paintings, Bacon would go through a decision making process to take all that he could see and choose which visual information was important to his idea. Much of what I see is edited before making it to the canvas. Due to congenital glaucoma and cataracts, I have to look at an object very closely to see it well. The broader picture of the world I see is made up of fuzzy edged colours and tonal contrasts.

The extra attention I give to seeing is likely to be what made painting important to me. As I kid I was preoccupied with choosing objects and characters to draw as a way of studying how they looked, how they fitted together.

Once we have learnt how an object looks, for example, the form of a pencil sharpener or the shape of a wine glass, we never really have to look at the object again. It sits in our memory as a potent reduction of itself, as a sensation.

The works chosen for this exhibition at the Baillieu vary in age from the oldest, my first experiment on canvas, Marley (1993), to the youngest, Poster Pole (2005). I am pleased to be exhibiting these works at the Baillieu. This library is now part of my daily life at The University of Melbourne's Disability Liaison Unit, where books are converted into accessible formats such as Braille, audio and e-text for students with print disabilities.