Monash Gallery of Art - Ex de Medlici

Tooth and Claw

What a work of art.  This is a piece that has taken me by surprise. To finally see different kind of work from an alternative artist.  I was excited to attend this exhibition and see a piece of work by a tattoo artist.  Ex de Medlici is a tattoo artist that has a passion for old style navy tattoos and the mechanics of guns.  She has taken this contemporary military high powered weapon and surrounded it by softening and consuming them with garlands of flowers and other tradition tattoo pieces.

I love the repeated pattern of nautical stars and swallows which then blend in with the ornate asian flowers.  Even though the masculinity of the guns and the skeletons shows the harshness of what war can create, eX has allowed the viewer to see the beauty in the mechanics of these high powered weapons.  Every artists sees objects in different lights and eX goes beyond to allow the view to look at them at a different angle.

Her love of the military culture has dominated her artwork and as she has many friends in the military they have invited her to draw the weapons so she can have more of an objective view.  eX was recently invited to go to East Timor and was commissioned for the to do a piece of war art.

Making it Modern

Attending the Monash Gallery of Art is always a pleasure.  There are so many different aspects as to what they display and how the create the viewing point.

What I loved most about this exhibition was that is was photography based.  To me there was a connection between Henry Talbot's work and the love that I have for Annie Leibovitz' early work when she worked with dancers.  Even though their styles are very different, there are some similarities.

The pieces on display were black and white and were predominately of the naked female form.  Photos taken at different angles, showing the body.  Using the lengths and curves creating shapes and shadows, then the black and white imagery, creates a whole other effect.  Making each portrait an artistic feature and a dramatic story it self.  Almost as though the body is an object yea a form of art at the same time.

Henry has really shown an appreciation for the human form to show it as a shape, and as a beautiful organic form of nature.  The black and white quality almost features the simplistic beauty.

This was my favourite part of the exhibition.