‘This shelter is always open, this shelter is always ready to receive, this shelter offers you the most precious gift.’
Kepsibel’s creative practice is characterised by a repetitive and ritualistic engagement with the material world.
Unbound by a commitment to conventional materials, she develops idiosyncratic processes, refining them over time on surfaces and substrates. Paintings, fibre sculptures and conceptual installations are confessional in nature and imbued with a sense of chaos and urgency as she attempts to align her internal world with her perception of the external world. The act of concealing and revealing through mark-making is achieved using oil paints, oil sticks, acrylic, natural dyes, pastels and watercolours.
This work was created on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation.
Kepsibel, ‘This shelter is always open, this shelter is always ready to receive, this shelter offers you the most precious gift’, 2024, turmeric, avocado seeds, avocado skins, apple cider vinegar, oil paint, silk dupioni, silk chiffon, silk sateen, muslin, cotton, aluminium.
Kepsibel, ‘When I speak of home, I speak of these’, 2024, oil paint on silk dupioni.
Artist portrait in studio, 2024. Photo: Meg Kelso
Kepsibel, ‘This shelter is always open, this shelter is always ready to receive, this shelter offers you the most precious gift’, 2024, turmeric, avocado seeds, avocado skins, apple cider vinegar, oil paint, silk dupioni, silk chiffon, silk sateen, muslin, cotton, aluminium.
Kepsibel, ‘And yet, beneath, there was a tremendous roiling’, 2024, oil paint on Perspex.
Kepsibel, ‘But I like it because it is bitter, And because it is my heart’, 2024, oil paint on Perspex.
Kepsibel, ‘I always identified as an Amy and she was always more like Jo’ 2024, oil paint on canvas.
Kepsibel, ‘The folds of her skin, where the tops of her legs meet the sky’ 2024, oil paint on canvas.
Kepsibel, ‘Reconstructed illusions, preordained delusions, transformed nostalgic inclusions, key concepts, deep Perspex’, 2024, oil paint on Perspex.
Kepsibel, ‘But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you’, 2024, oil paint, oil sticks, acrylic paint on canvas.
Kepsibel, ‘I return the gifts you gave to me, both good and bad, and hope that you return them to the person that gave them to you’, 2024, oil paint on canvas.
Kepsibel, artist portrait in studio, 2024. Photo: Meg Kelso
