MONSTER THRASHER \ CATCHER \ KEEPER (Final Love Letter to Mr. Graves) by Loren Orsillo / Loose ends by Jonathan Kim, Sunyoung Lee & Lisa Myeong-Joo

Loren Orsillo

Loren Orsillo is a contemporary painter living and working on Kaurna Land. Her work deals with found objects and the field of expanded painting, with a strong focus on the physicality of materials. Loren achieved first class honours in a Bachelor of Art and Design at the University of South Australia and is currently undertaking a PhD exploring assemblage painting practices and their relationship with the wall. Loren has since been the recipient of the South Australia Vacation Research Scholarship, the Carclew Artist in Residence program and the ACE Open Studio program and most recently the Joyner Scholarship in affiliation with her current research.

Loren has professional creative experience working as a coordinator and educator within a number of professional organisations. These include Studio Educator and tutoring roles at the University of South Australia, and coordinating a youth arts program for Carclew.

Loren has achieved two solo exhibitions as well as participated in several group exhibitions. Most recently these include Feather Boxers: Shorts, Cardboard and “The Sport” at Floating Goose Studios and Paint Thing… You Make My Heart Sing at the Little Machine gallery.

MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\KEEPER: Final Love Letter to Mr. Graves (2023) by Loren Orsillo is a work that asks many questions but provides no answers. It seemingly evades definitions and instead, raises multiple propositions that interrogate the relationship between an artwork and white cube gallery.

Since 2019, Orsillo has been exploring the parameters of assemblage painting in relation to ideas of dependency/codependency within the context of the exhibition space. Working with a series of prototypes in the studio, the artist has been experimenting with forms that foreground the mechanics of the painting as a structure and investigate an artwork’s physical and conceptual relationship with the gallery.

MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\KEEPER: Final Love Letter to Mr. Graves is a site-specific work that responds to idiosyncrasies of the exhibition spaces of Post Office Projects Gallery in Port Adelaide. Oscillating between a painting, a sculpture and an installation, the work comprises a large monochrome painting made from blockout fabric; its smooth surface interrupted by a central seam that runs horizontally through the work. Orbiting the frame are a series of custom-made galvanized steel pieces positioned at regular intervals. In MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\KEEPER: Final Love Letter to Mr. Graves, Orsillo makes visible elements of display normally discreetly hidden or masked. The impinging polished silver hardware is affixed to zinc-plated steel turnbuckles that secure the canvas directly onto the wall.

The eloquence of MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\ KEEPER: Final Love Letter to Mr. Graves derives from its literalness. Despite the simplicity of materials, the work resonates with strength and power. Orsillo notes that practicality was a key factor in much decision-making and the work evolved in response to the limitations of the gallery architecture. For example, the scale of the canvas, which measures six metres in width, meant that the work had to be stretched on site, and traces of this labour-intensive process can be found in the dust and scuff marks left on the white fabric. Additionally, the industrial hardware that surrounds the work mirrors the position of the studs in the gallery wall behind.

Physically imposing, it is difficult to ascertain whether MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\KEEPER: Final Love Letter to Mr. Graves is concealing, supporting or revealing the architecture of the gallery. What is apparent is the interdependence of the work and the gallery, one cannot exist without the other. By foregrounding the physical interaction between the work and the gallery space, Orsillo reveals the tensions inherent in the white cube gallery.

Megan Robson

Associate Curator, Exhibitions Museum of Contemporary Art Australia

Loren Orsillo, Thank You Mr. Graves (Sister painting), 2021, wood, block out fabric, hardware, 76 x 23.5 cm.

Loren Orsillo, MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\KEEPER: Final Love
Letter to Mr Graves (detail), 2023, blockout fabric, steel, dimensions variable. — Loren Orsillo, MONSTER THRASHER\CATCHER\KEEPER: Final Love Letter to Mr Graves (detail), 2023, blockout fabric, steel, dimensions variable.

Loose ends trail the complexities of self-representation, personal history and cultural hybridity. The multidisciplinary practices of the artists follow threads that tie us to notions of identity and belonging, creating new moments of contestation and alignment that intertwine a shared cultural heritage.

Decentering eurocentric perspectives, Loose ends interrogates understandings of personal and cultural identity through transcultural practice.

Jonathan Kim was born and raised in South Korea and spent most of his 20s in China and 30s in Australia. Kim’s artworks are inspired by various cultural elements from the countries he has called home. Kim has presented solo exhibitions around Australia including: PASSAGE, St Paul’s Creative Centre, Adelaide (2021); Encounter, Linden New Art, Melbourne (2020); Density, FELTspace, Adelaide (2020) and Reciprocity, Nexus Arts, Adelaide (2020). Kim’s work has been included in numerous group exhibitions including: Studios: 2021, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental (ACE), Adelaide (2021); Abstract Now, West Gallery Thebarton, Adelaide (2021); and Paper Contemporary, Sydney Contemporary Art Fair (2019). Kim has been awarded the Constance Gordon-Johnson Sculpture Prize and Linden New Art Award. In 2019, Kim completed the British School at Rome Residency and Sauerbier House Culture Exchange Artist in Residence.

Sunyoung Lee is a contemporary dancer. Lee was the principal dancer, creator and arts and culture educator at Trust Dance Theatre for 12 years, between 2005 and 2017. In 2017 Lee founded 29-Dong Dance Theatre and has been artistic director since it’s formation. In the Beginning, a choreography work that was developed by Lee and 29-Dong Dance Theatre, was selected as Arko Selection’s Remarkable Repertoire of the Year, in 2018. As a choreographer and producer, Sunyoung has been actively involved with various dances works such as Implied Things, 12 Doors, The Breathing Weight, and Inclination+Narrative.

Lisa Myeong-Joo is an emerging artist based on Wangal and Gadigal lands (Sydney). Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions nationally including, Drawing, Sydenham International, Sydney (2022); Traversed Differences, Firstdraft, Sydney (2021); HATCHED, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Perth (2021). After gaining an alternative arts education through studio residencies in South Korea and India including Seoul Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (2016), Lisa completed Fine Arts Honours from University of NSW in 2021. She is also part of Third Time, a long-distance collaboration with artist Dahn Gim who performed at Real Time Arts, Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul (2019) and participated in online residencies including One Room, Two Doors, X-Temporary (2018-2019).