Some of those Spaces Tween Life and Death, Hollie, Woolloongabba Art Gallery

Ethereality emanates from the walls of Some of those Spaces Tween Life and Death at Woolloongabba Art Gallery. It would seem that more of the region’s cultural heritage aside from shipwrecks has been unearthed in the aftermath of ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred. There’s an iridescence to the indeterminate, yet distinctly aquatic forms, fashioned from found objects by the artist who goes by the name of Hollie.

They offer a breath of air for the sea-loving among the local visitors, who are presently land-bound due to chemical contamination and excessive debris. Comprehensive and considered in her transformation of materials, her pieces of work are quite difficult to imagine in their unadulterated states. That said, there are delightful clues left to be discovered. The occasional typed character protrudes from the back of some papier-mâché surfaces.

Golden Eye (Passage of Magic through the Everyday) (2024) appears ‘animal’. The title refers to a socket adjacent to a crescent shaped beak. The remaining crevices in this piece of driftwood have been converted into colourful scales. Forming a back are feathers, articulated with wire and paper. The membrane-fine mâché fins of a tail curl as though in motion.

Although it’s one of the sculptures into which vegetation hasn’t been incorporated, Knot of Blood and Water (2024) may be read by some viewers as stipes of seaweed. It may as easily be read by others as strands of DNA. The artist is not prescriptive; her concerns extend beyond the material world.

Much of the magic is imbued by Hollie’s extraordinary application of acrylic paint. Through her meticulous juxtaposing of complementary colours, this possibly matt medium is made to glisten. Apart from movement, growth is insinuated through the complex patterns. 

While the exhibition is compelling as a series, some viewers could also be perplexed by where they may have seen Hollie’s artwork before. The recipient of the Moet-Chandon has exhibited with the likes of Cindy Sherman and Louise Bourgeois, in galleries such as the Institute of Modern Art, Queensland Art Gallery and National Gallery of Australia. During the 1980s and 1990s, the colourist and neo-expressionist was considered a quintessential element of the burgeoning contemporary art scene in South East Queensland.  

Her recent shows could be seen as an awakening from a self-imposed hiatus, which began at the turn of the millennium. A gradual adaptation can be witnessed in the work of her contemporaries including Vivienne Binns, Julie Rrap and Barbara Heath.

Read: Exhibition review: Danie Mellor: marru I the unseen visible, Queensland Art Gallery

Hollie’s content, including a transcendence of the conscious, is consistent. The now resident of Coochiemudlo Island seems to have honed, if not refined, her practice during this repose. Her resilience and renewed relevance are nothing short of remarkable.

Some of those Spaces Tween Life and Death will be exhibited at Woolloongabba Art Gallery until 19 April 2025.