Caroline Walls’ Latest Exhibition Explores Intimacy & Ambiguity
Melbourne-based Caroline Walls’ solo exhibition, Touching From A Distance, is a collection of graphic and figurative works exploring the complexities of female identity, human emotion and the universal longing for connection.
Words: Hande Renshaw I Photography: Jessica Tremp
A Love Of Some Kind by Caroline Walls.
‘In this new body of work I’ve looked to explore how much we reveal of ourselves to the outside world, and how this can create or diminish connection and intimacy between ourselves and others,’ says Caroline Walls.
‘On a really basic level, I really just love to paint—the possibilities of it. I love the process of taking a blank canvas and moving around paint to create something from nothing… it’s freeing, exciting and I can lose hours at a time when I’m in the studio,’ shares Caroline Walls.
She Moves Through by Caroline Walls.
‘I tend to surround myself with strong, inspired women in my life—I’m also married to a woman, and we have two young daughters together, so womanhood and female identity is a source of incredible inspiration to me as it is ever-present in my own life.’ Pictured: This Is The Sea by Caroline Walls.
For her latest body of work, New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based visual artist Caroline Walls explores how much we reveal of ourselves to the outside world and how much we keep to ourselves—her work informed by her personal experiences as a woman, mother and partner.
‘Through this collection of new paintings I’ve looked to explore the complexities of human emotion and the universal longing for connection. I’m interested in the idea that human connections are non-linear—they flow freely, fluidly between people, transcending time and place, parallel to our own inner monologues,’ shares Caroline.
The new exhibition, Touching From A Distance, at James Makin Gallery in Melbourne, features a collection of large scale oil paintings—including a series of striped, billowing fabric graphic artworks and more figurative works of the female form. For Caroline, the striped fabric act almost like cartography, ‘A bodily map, leading the viewer’s eye across the expanse of the canvas and out of the bounds of the frames… playing with the idea that these works are emotional landscapes,’ she says.
Drawing inspiration from the luscious drapery found in Renaissance figurative art, the drapery in the works folds and swirls, an interplay of abstract and rhythmic lines which take cues from the female silhouette—the organic forms softly billowing off the canvas. The exhibition is an incredibly immersive experience, the scale of the paintings, (with most above 2 metres high) means the viewer is completely enveloped into the emotional landscapes Caroline has created.
‘Ultimately, I hope to create an inherent feeling of presence in the fabric works whilst also leaving them more open to interpretation by the viewer than the more overtly figurative paintings,’ explains Caroline. ‘Metaphorically, you could say intimacy and trust are part of the fabric of relationships, or love is part of the fabric of family, and with this in mind I have explored the use of fabrics and draping as the symbolic thread of these artworks. I’m interested in how much we reveal of ourselves to the outside world, and how this can create or diminish connection and intimacy between ourselves and others.’
The figurative works delve into a shared realm of emotional intimacy, where we see women in various degrees of concealment and revelation. Drawing from her own experiences to explore womanhood and female identity, the works were inspired from different stages of Caroline’s life; such as finding love, going through fertility treatment, birthing a child and exploring her sexuality. ‘I tend to surround myself with strong, inspired women in my life—I’m also married to a woman, and we have two young daughters together, so womanhood and female identity is a source of incredible inspiration to me as it is ever-present in my own life.’
Caroline hopes the artworks slowly reveal themselves to the viewer, allowing them to take away what resonates most from the emotive works. ‘The human experience of love embodies a tapestry of emotions that binds us and ultimately defines the essence of our shared existence. I hope these paintings are an evocation of these exquisite, immense emotions. Ultimately, I hope this collection conveys the sensations of a lived experience, a remembered past or a fleeting moment in time.’
James Makin Gallery
89 Islington Street,
Collingwood VIC
Exhibition dates:
Saturday, April 6 - Sunday, April 21
The Space Inside Ourselves by Caroline Walls.
‘Drawing upon my own experiences for inspiration has meant womanhood and female identity has played out often in my works through my different life stages, such as finding love, going through fertility treatment, birthing a child and exploring my own sexuality.’
“The human experience of love embodies a tapestry of emotions that binds us and ultimately defines the essence of our shared existence – I hope these paintings are an evocation of these exquisite, immense emotions.”
Touching From A Distance by Caroline Walls.
‘The striped fabric acts almost like cartography—a bodily map—leading the viewer’s eye across the expanse of the canvas and out of the bounds of the frames… playing with the idea that these works are emotional landscapes.’