Artist: Jenny Watson Work: Doll House (2003) Location: Kellerberrin, Western Australia
Jenny Watson worked at IASKA during the summer period at a time when many local residents leave town for the summer holidays. During her residency the artist created a series of new large paintings which were shown at IASKA for the Perth Festival. Her works mixed autobiographical memories from her childhood with references to the local environment. During her stay she engaged the community at an informal level, often exchanging stories, thoughts and impressions with locals over a cup of tea or a beer.
Over the 30 years of her career, Jenny Watson has developed a strong personal iconography that continues a dialogue with art history. Predominant themes in the exhibition at IASKA were mortality, nature, memory and love. These themes were interwoven with formal questions about painting, installation, support material, content and location.
In Doll House, Jenny returns to the large Belgian linen format of her 1980s work. All paintings have an accompanying oval text panel, a typical Watson signature where in this case the texts are the titles. In the painting Gulliver’s Drought there is a distorted scale relation between the figure and elements in the landscape, another typical Watson device. Also recurrent within Watson’s work are the decorative beading, humour, frenetic dry brush work of the backgrounds.