The Samstag Alumni

The 2007 Anne & Gordon Samstag
International Visual Arts Scholarships

Anthea Behm | Sarah CrowEST | Kirra Jamison |
Paul Knight | Jess MacNeil | Nick Mangan |

By blending human and animal in her paintings, Kirra Jamison creates mythical creatures. Her work is lyrical and mysterious, often omitting facial features and other details, allowing passages of paint to perform their traditional magic by taking form in the viewer's imagination.

The physical reality of the painted surface is strongly emphasised by the loose, dripping brushwork. This is in distinct contrast to photographic techniques that allow viewers to overlook the process of representation and imagine that the content itself is real. She exploits the ability of the decorative in art to liberate the imagination of both artist and viewer in ways that are not possible in precise depictions. The animal/human hybrids introduce shamanistic elements, and seem to offer primitivism as an antidote to the sense of detachment that comes with experiencing the world second-hand through the mass-media. These hybrids address the contemporary condition directly, and the artist describes them as reflecting the way life in the twenty-first century unfolds against a background of image-overload. Far from turning her back on the elaborate interconnectedness created by the digital revolution, Jamison actually illustrates the model that Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari have proposed for it: the rhizome.

Timothy Morell
from his Samstag catalogue essay;
Loose connections

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• The Samstag Alumni

Cultivating Morris 2005
acrylic on canvas
192 x 122 cm
© the artist

Deer and Me 2006
acrylic on Poly cotton
120 x 100 cm
© the artist