MEDIA RELEASE | Kim Shannon, A Stilled World

Sep 18

Written By Strathnairn Arts

*Arrangement in Red and Green, 2019 Kim Shannon*

Strathnairn Arts Association Homestead Galleries

Exhibition Dates: Thursday 24 September to Sunday 01 November 2020.

Opening hours: Thursday to Sunday 10am to 4pm.

KIM SHANNON | A STILLED WORLD

The genre of still life has a long history in the Western canon arguably dating back to at least New Kingdom Egypt and continuing through to today with high points including the glorious productions of 17th-Century Dutch and Flemish flower paintings and the beautiful compositions of 17th-century Spanish art. Kim Shannon has embraced still life as the core of her art practice and while the broadaer history of the genre is quietly acknowledged, her allegiance to the objects that form part of her domestic life places her clearly in the present day.

In the over 30 works in A Stilled World Shannon presents a panoply of domestic equipment, personal objects and residual floral arrangements, the latter dried and lifeless but holding memories of former status as decorative elements in the artst’s home. The artist happily depicts dishes stacked on the sink, postcards falling off a table, bottles on a shelf, kitchen utensils in a colander, jars filled with the artist’s tools and plastic bottles stacked together or sitting in a cardboard box ready for future use. The everyday is her subject matter and the celebration of this her theme. The richness of her source and the ease with which she can access the objects etcetera that constitute it have resulted in a joyously celebratory body of work.

The exhibition’s title however alludes in a subtle yet incisive way to a world shaped by ravaging fires and the invidious presence of Covid-19; a world where the importance of the rituals of our quotidian lives assumes a special significance on both a personal and more universal level. Shannon’s images are characterised not just by the familiarity of their subject matter but also by the clear joy the artist takes in producing her paintings. The activity of painting is as important to her as is the finished product. Shannon’s celebration of the everyday is given formal equivalent in her vital painterly surfaces.

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