GIVING AND RECEIVING AND GIVING AND RECEIVING is a visual exploration of the relationships between people and their societal, interpersonal and internal environments, asking the questions:
What do we give to society and what do we receive from it?
Can we live both in the ‘real world’ and simultaneously live in our imagination?
What do we give to our communities and what do we receive from them?
Can we be sincerely generous and are we able to truly receive the generosity of others?
instagram: @milli.windshuttl
Giving and receiving is repeated in the title to convey the cyclical flow of abundance that is possible when there is a healthy balance of reciprocity. Not a radical concept, yet one that can be hard to fully embody living in present times.
Holding space for both abstraction and figuration draws a connection to the larger themes of duality in the project. Elements of figuration allows me to create recognisable points of encounter that represent an individual as they grapple with experiences of connection, community and isolation. My engagement with abstraction and experimentation sees the figures taken from the recognisable to the obscure, existing in liminal spaces and landscapes. The relationship between abstraction and figuration speaks to the relationship between reality and imagination and is a way to help me process these themes during my practice.
Areas I’m interested in developing are depictions of light, movement and people in my paintings. Working across multiple pieces while their composition develops, this process-driven practice allows me to build the narratives and concepts of each painting in communication with each other; they give and receive throughout their stages of development.
The scale of my paintings is attributed to my sense of urgency as a queer artist. There’s no time for being indirect, polite or small in the context of 2023. I want the work to be loud, authentic and unavoidable in the gallery space.
Milli Windshuttle is an oil painter currently residing and creating on the stolen lands of the Wiradjuri people in Narrm, also known as Melbourne. Milli’s artistic practice is an ongoing exploration of unseen realms through their authentic visual language, which they convey through large-scale canvas works. Their paintings navigate the boundary between abstraction and figuration and delve into themes of mysticism and queerness. Their consistent practice helps them to visualise optimistic visions of the future and better understand their own relationship to the world. Milli was honoured as the recipient of the Gavin Teague Memorial Scholarship in 2023. Recent group exhibitions include Portal in 2023, and You Like Fire in 2022, both hosted at HoneyBones Gallery in Brunswick, Victoria. Milli’s paintings have also appeared in publications such as Foley Mag, Demure, and the collaborative artist book, Portal.