Georgia Arnold | South British Insurance Company Ltd Building Art Project
Congratulations to Georgia Arnold whose major new work was unveiled this week at the South British Insurance Company Building at 3 Shortland St, Auckland CBD.
Georgia Arnold
What ever will grow, 2024
pencil, acrylic paint on wall
3000 x 7800 mm
"In my work over the last couple years I have been investigating the messy potential of autobiography and how the self contends with structures, both societal and self-imposed. When making, I enjoy the playful tension between depicting imagery and the range of expressive mark making my materials offer. I employ surrealist techniques of automatism and mind wandering to 'carve out' imagery that explores memories, ambiguous figure / field relationships, networks and plant and human entanglements.
I often turn to gardening as a metaphor for my practice and my life. I have been helping out in the garden since I was four at my Nana's place, and ever since I feel the need to create a small veggie and flower patch wherever I am living. Recently in my flat's patio garden, I have been enjoying making trellises. The structures are built with overlapping bamboo and repeated knots, a meditative task setting up the support for future growth.
'What ever will grow' borrows the lattice motif from outside the front of the South British Insurance Building to map the wall. Drawing at this scale, feels like swimming. The painting was built organically, combining studies of plants in my garden with a continuous line drawing where creatures emerge from the overlapping tendrils of an imaginary plant. The use of orange allows the trellis to morph into terracotta tiles, distorting all perspective into pattern. Focussing loosely instead on the point of view of a bug and allowing for garden rhythms to play out across the curved wall."
Georgia Arnold will exhibit new work in our upcoming exhibition "The Secret Life of Plants" opening at the gallery 16th October.
