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ARTISTS IN ISOLATION | 2020

Jenny Toye

Bairnsdale, May 2020

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"I like to embrace a 'by the seat of your pants' creative process. The best works are where relationships between odd or disparate forms are meant to be and they 'make themselves'. I like being 'the developer' and building works from the fragments. I manipulate found objects and by juxtaposing elements, often laced with narratives and metaphors, I make other forms to fit in with what I have found.

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I have found the lockdown great, as it forced me to stay home and has given me time to think and learn new skills. The sculptures I started working on have come out of both the lockdown and a trip through East Gippsland into NSW in February 2020.  The bush fires definitely effected what I made in the lockdown. That Black Brown and Burnt world – bush, houses, metal road signs, animals and the effect on people, counterbalanced with how kind people were to others and how well many in our community responded, people from other communities and countries everywhere also helped in the recovery.

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While in the studio I started making some forms in copper this was fun and very difficult, especially trying to get my new soldering torch under control. Thankyou Marcus Foley!

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I like the fusion of the natural and man-made materials in the new works - although the humorous element is only just on the surface. Humour is an important part of what I like to do and I am still working on that element in these works.

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I think humour depends a lot on incongruity, which it does by creating shifts and shocks. My starting point is an item or a material, where the germ of an idea begins, playing with scale, creating tension between elements. I play with the juxtaposition of surface treatments, while evolving and refining shapes and forms. But most of all, I'm having a great time playing!"

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-Jenny Toye, Bairnsdale, May 2020

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