Lowenstein Arts Management Prize.
THE JUNK PILE draws upon Bonnie-Jean Whitlock’s relationship with material, image and process.
“I call the accumulation of experience sustained within my own body my ‘junk pile’, it contaminates everything I say, do and make. I trace body parts and scavenge photos from thousands stored on my phone, gravitating towards those of my rural family home during my last visit, pictures of bodies, of my lover and loved ones, my garden, decaying cars and scrap metal in the bush, and expansive landscapes that remind me of the old romantic paintings in museums – all fodder, oscillating between that which is symbolic and that which is subconscious. I read my junk pile like an atlas, mnemonic references to stay anchored in the intoxicating world of possibility, politics, and money. Things that remind me I already know where home is.”
Working predominately in painting installation with repurposed materials, Bonnie uses methods such as staining and tracing to approach painting as a performative, durational act of layering. Her dense, sometimes psychedelic imagery references personal narrative and internal landscapes, exploring what it means to feel at home in our body and environment.
instagram: @bonniejeanwhitlock.art
