Jasper Knight Survey Show

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1 Jasper Knight Survey Show Education notes GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show Goulburn Regional Art Gallery

The Jasper Knight Survey Show 2003 2012 is a collection of works from the last decade of Jasper Knight s career.

His works are often an assemblage of plywood, perspex, cardboard boxes, and old signs and are remanent of the found objects used in the Dada, Surrealist, Fluxus and Pop Art movements.

2 The Jasper Knight Survey Show is a collection of works from the last decade of Jasper Knight s career. Jasper Knight Jasper s work has blurred the boundaries between high art and amateur photography, between sculpture and painting. His works are often an assemblage of plywood, perspex, cardboard boxes, and old signs and are remanent of the found objects used in the Dada, Surrealist, Fluxus and Pop Art movements. However, Jasper has combined the industrial materials of his painting surface with traditional art methods, which provides a certain amount of texture and sculptural form while still playing an important direct link to the actual subject matter. My work has always straddled painting and the constructed object. In the past, my materials have added to the narrative content, or sometimes to the context, of the depicted scenes. My recent work has explored this relationship between material and subject, between constructed object and painted surface, in a more abstract way. The subject matter, from wharves to cars, from chairs to landscape, helps explore these binary concerns and is treated in a highly architectural and linear way. His focus is often the busy waterway, machinery at work or the remnants of an old factory; painted in blocks of colour that drip and spill over his brightly coloured and shiny surfaces to give the illusion of movement within the landscape. Jasper has held successful exhibitions throughout Australia and in London, Berlin and Beijing. He has been a finalist in the Archibald, Wynne and Mosman Art prizes and is represented in corporate and private collections throughout Australia.(1) GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

3 Artist Jasper Knight, born in 1978 in Sydney, began his art journey at school. He was selected for Artexpress with an acrylic work of the Australian landscape. His Artexpress work was purchased by then Premier of NSW, Bob Carr in (2) After high school Jasper studied a Bachelor of Visual Arts, Electronic + Temporal Arts at Sydney College of the Arts and then completed a Master of Arts majoring in painting + drawing at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney. World Knight uses the world around him not only as a means for finding and reusing materials but to develop bodies of work. In 2006 Knight travelled to London and chartered a boat to sail down the River Thames. This experience, the weather, cargo boats and the boom in local construction set the scene for a body of work based on his travels. (3) Knight also created a body of work based on his travels to Haasts Bluff, near Alice Springs, Central Australia, where he discovered a car graveyard full of rusted and abandoned vehicles. (4) Audience Knight not only links with his audience through his art making process but though his own art galleries. Knight opened a contemporary gallery called Gallery Ecosse in the Southern Highlands NSW. He also opened Chalk Horse Gallery in Surry Hills. Through opening these galleries Knight was able to link with audiences and provide unique spaces in which to view art. Knight s works are evocative of Mondrian through the use of grid patterns and primary colours; Lichtenstein through the use of pegboard giving the pixilated effects; comic styles and Jeffery Smart through the industrial landscape as a subject matter, often with the absence of people. GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

4 Artwork When discussing Knight s work the term construction comes to mind, his works are a collaboration of painting and sculpture. Found objects are also prominent in his work, for example packaging, rulers, pencils, metal bracketing, linoleum and timber. Knight paints upon ply, pegboard, old signs and Perspex, putting them together, often in grids on a baseboard. (5) Selection of materials is not random; he explores the relationship of materials and plans the layout before construction. Knight believes that found objects relate directly to the subject matter, they tell their own story and therefore influence the work these most humble found objects were once part of the landscape itself, and that aspect gives my work as much physicality as possible Jasper Knight. (6) Knight paints over these objects using bright primary colours, reflecting his personality. His works consist of dripping paint representative of the work melting away into oblivion, as an indicator to mortality. Knight had a major health scare when he was 19 years old that led him to reassess his life and cause him to think seriously about his art making. (7) Although Knight s work is well organised there is some element of chance. Knight s work consists of a vast range of subject matter. Portraits: Knight has completed many portraits, a selection of which is in this survey show Knight s portraits are often large in scale ranging from 150cm x 150cm to 225cm x 150cm and consist of portraits of politicians, artists and famous Australian identities. The portraits consist of Knights signature colours, black, white, yellow, blue and red and are organised in grid forms, making use of peg board in various areas reminiscent of Roy Lichtenstein s dot technique or the concept of pixilation. Construction Scenes: Knight creates construction themed works that are based on his travels consisting of building sites, wharves and jetties, cargo moving equipment and abandoned dockyards. Abandonment and the disused are also important themes in Knight s work, he refers to this concept with the absence of people or animals in his work and the use of abandoned and used signage as a canvas. The signs are very important in his work, often referring to or belonging to the painted scene. Collage: Knight not only works in 2 dimensions, making use of flat materials in which to paint over, but in 3 Dimensions whereby found materials are layered over one another to create intricate and stylised imagery. Knight makes use of various materials such as builders pencils, wooden rulers, metal strips, timber and Perspex off cuts, and a range of everyday materials. The materials are layered and arranged to make imagery of vehicles, all the while keeping to Knight s signature colourings, demonstrating selectiveness in materials for their various qualities. Sculpture: Knight creates sculptures from various materials, including children s swing sets, scaffolding and plywood. Knight in collaboration with Isabelle Toland creates works such as Red Back 2010 a giant spider 240 x 150 x 70 from plywood reminiscent of flat pack children s construction toys. (8) GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

Police Van 2010 80 x 80 cm Mixed media collage GRAG

5 Police Van x 80 cm Mixed media collage GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

King Street Jetty 2011 220 x 360cm Enamel & Perspex on

6 King Street Jetty x 360cm Enamel & Perspex on Board GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

The Honourable Bob Carr 2007 200 x 150cm Enamel, perspex & masonite

7 The Honourable Bob Carr x 150cm Enamel, perspex & masonite on board GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

8 Redback Spider Stack, 2010 Each 240 x 150 x 68 cm approx Birch Veneer Plywood (Installation image from Tin Sheds Gallery, University of Sydney, September 2010) GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

Olive Chair 2003 120 x 90cm Enamel & cardboard boxes on

9 Olive Chair x 90cm Enamel & cardboard boxes on Board GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

10 Activities and Questions Preschool Provide children with a range of coloured papers, in various shapes, some textured some smooth. Allow children to create images using the papers. Ask children what their work is about. Provide glue for children to stick their collage down onto card. On the painting easel provide squares of textured card, provide paint in primary colours and ask children to paint a person or a car or a truck onto the card. Look at how the textures change the painting surface. Primary School Ask children to look carefully at Knight s work. Discuss how the work has been made, what materials has he used? Create a collage from found objects, such as old rulers, pencils and various materials. Place all materials out on the table and carefully select what materials to use. Once the image has been created, glue the pieces down and attach to cardboard or a canvas. High School Collect a range of materials such as cardboard boxes, textured card, flat pieces of plastic or Perspex. Ask students to create their own canvas from found objects. Ask students to paint a self portrait on top. Take students on a walk around the school, find discarded or unused objects and use them as a subject in an art making experience. Discuss how Jasper Knight interprets his world, use examples of his work in your discussion. Compare and contrast one of Jasper Knight s works with one work by Jeffery Smart. How are they similar and how do they differ? Examine Jasper Knight s work from the four Frames, draw up a grid and make notes about each frame focusing on certain details. Select an artwork and discuss it in terms of construction, style and the elements and principles of art. How is the personality of the artist conveyed in the artworks? Select two works as a reference. How does Knight express his own experiences? GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

11 Acknowledgements Education Kit compiled by Michelle Stuart Education and Public Programs Officer Goulburn Regional Art Gallery Thankyou to Jane Cush Director, Janenne Gittoes Gallery Officer Angela D Elia Curator and Exhibitions Officer Jasper Knight Andre de Borde Endnotes/ references 1. Gallery Ecosse Jasper Knight, online Further reading Chalk Horse Gallery Crawford, C. (2011) The Rusting Knight in Jasper Knight Australian High Commission Singapore, Artrium Gallery, Australian High Commission, Singapore Gallery Ecosse McDonald, J (2012) Jasper Knight Survey Show , Finsbury Green Printing, Australia 2. Watson, E. (2008) Art Starter Beginners Competition turns 25 in The Sun Herald, Feb online at 3. McGregor, K. (2007) Jasper Knight Tidemark Thames Series exhibition catalogue, COSA in conjunction with Peta O Brien Contemporary Art, London 4. De Borde, A. (2011) The Fast and the Furious Jasper Knight, Muk Muk Fine Art, Northern Territory AU 5. Jasper Knight Tidemark Thames Series exhibition catalogue 6. ibid 7.ibid 8. Jasper Knight Survey Show , Finsbury Green Printing, Australia GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

12 Goulburn Regional Art Gallery is supported by the NSW Government through Arts NSW GRAG education notes Jasper Knight Survey Show

Year 6 Visual Arts Unit 2016 Perspective Art Term: Week:

Year 6 Visual Arts Unit 2016 Perspective Art Term: Week: Term: 1 2 3 4 Week: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 OUTCOMES Making: investigates subject matter in an attempt to represent likenesses of things in the world - makes artworks for different audiences, assembling