Denise Honan
I am a Melbourne-based artist working in drawing and sculpture.
My current body of work is an exploration of the materials bone, sap and pewter. Their choice is based on my autobiographical history living in the rural environment of Colac in South Western Victoria. My selection of these specific materials – from the organic, mineral and metal worlds – was augmented with materials from my domestic environment. As a result of Melbourne’s COVID-19 lockdown and its subsequent restrictions, I used the accessible kitchen staples of wax, Jamsetta, beef-fat and sugar.
In the absence of a studio and workshop facility I applied basic production methods that were achievable in the kitchen, backyard and spare bedroom environments. An alchemical union was forged between outlier practices and primitive materials. The germination of my ideas and the burgeoning of my work blossomed through the soundtracks of a collection of battered 1970s vinyl LP’s played on constant repeat in my bedroom studio.
Suspensions, 2020
Wax
10mm x 20mm x 5mm
Breech, 2020
Bone and sap
15mm x 20mm x 10mm
Cornucopia, 2020
Multiples, pewter
Dimensions variable
Extruded, 2020
Bone pewter sap
150mm x 150mm x 5mm
Outlier, 2020
Multiples, bone, pewter, sap
Dimensions variable
Chrysalis1, 2020
Multiple materials
Dimensions variable
Expulsions1, 2020
Drawings, multiples
200mm x 300mm
Impinge, 2020
Wax, resin, pewter, sap, jamsetta,
Multiples x 150mm
