Conversations with the Collection

Rosalie Gascoigne and Eleanor Miller

ROSALIE GASCOIGNE
Newcastle Region Art Gallery

When Rosalie Gascoigne arrived in rural Australia from New Zealand one of the first things she noticed were the birds. Large and loud, Australian birds such as currawongs, magpies and cockatoos appeared so different to their New Zealand counterparts.

Birds are a recurring theme in Gascoigne’s art and this sculpture is one of the earliest bird works made by the artist, who didn’t start making art until she was in her fifties. Combining old materials including a weathered soft drink crate, Gascoigne constructs a rudimentary bird box, or bird cage. The birds themselves are fashioned from timber off-cuts, their wings are formed from the roughly torn edges of timber that carry painterly traces of their former life. Later works by Gascoigne used the Arnott’s logo of the rosella as a symbol of Australian culture.

Eleanor Frances Miller Defeat or surrender 2009

ELEANOR MILLER
Defeat or surrender?
Sculpture
Kincoppal-Rose Bay School of the Sacred Heart

My experience with an abused horse, its force and strength working against me instead of with me, led to this concept. After months of training I managed to develop a connection with the horse. But was this through force, or the horse’s own willingness to learn? I wanted to convey the unbreakable ties to instinct by appealing to the concept of herd mentality and internal instincts such as the ‘fight or flight’ response and obvious containment which I have displayed both by metaphorical and literal allusions within the two boxes, and in the short film Defeat or surrender?.

Resources

ARTEXPRESS ED KIT_Gascoigne-Miller (4.5 MB pdf)