We brought you one of KT Doyle’s wallpaper designs in last week’s ‘Habitus Loves’, well this week we thought we’d tell you about her upcoming exhibition in Brisbane.
Collected Patterns: the botany of Walter Hill is an exploration of the contribution of the Colonial Botanist to Queensland. The new paper and textile works are based on plants from the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens, cultivated by Walter Hill between 1855 and 1881.
The works take the form of emroidered textiles, digital prints and letterpress – created on location at Myrtle Street Studio using an original Heidelberg letterpress.
“Being able to work closely with MSS director and printmaker, Jay Dee Dearness, on the letterpress artworks was really exciting,” explains KT. “Using a printing press that was around at the same time as Walter Hill, adds to the layers of detail in this exhibition and defined the highly graphic quality of all the artwork.”
KT’s beautiful work features iconic plants such as sugarcane and clover all in black and white.
“I’m actually surprised myself that the entire exhibition is in black and white,” KT says. “When I think of plants, I naturally think in colour. But, it was important for the work in this show to focus on pattern, form and precise detail, and I believe colour would have been distracting.”
“Walter Hill was a meticulous professional who recorded his work in painstaking detail through annual reports and collection documents. Researching these records was invaluable in determining the overall visual aesthetic for the exhibition,” she says.
The exhibition of prints will be shown alongside the letterpress at the Myrtle Street Studio Gallery, 39 Myrtle Street, The Grange, 4051 from 5 – 12 March 2011. The exhibition would not be possible without the support of SignatureBrisbane and Janet Holmes à Court Artists’ Grant.
Myrtle Street Studio
myrtlestreetstudio.com
KT Doyle
ktdoyle.com
Photography taken and generously supplied by Troy Hansen