Image: Judith WRIGHT The ancestors 2014, acrylic on panels, found objects and recycled frames. QUT Art Collection. Purchased 2015.
The overall dimensions of this artwork are variable, with an approximate height of 2.1 metres by 3.96 metres wide. It is composed of acrylic paint on panels, found objects and recycled frames. The items are displayed in a salon-style hang, a term that refers to large groupings of art that extend higher and lower than the traditional eye-level single row hangings.
The artworks are clustered together upon a black wall. There are 22 objects in total in this display.
Wright has created a suite of ornately framed shadow portraits painted on board. A collection of objects and images appear in a variety of differently shaped frames. One of the artworks is in a distinct box frame to the left of the middle of the display and nestled within the right-hand corner of this frame stands a small antique figurine of a toddler, or small child, 8 centimetres in height, dressed in clothing from the past. Another artwork on the far-right-hand side of the display is an ornately carved dark brown wooden frame, out from which protrudes a semi-circle shelf, upon which sits a circle of dark, dusty velvet and in its centre a tiny brass hand and wrist stand open palmed to the visitor, the fingers pointing upwards.
Above this sits another lavishly carved frame and within it a motif of a goat’s head silhouetted as if lit from behind. The renderings of the shadow portraits included in the frames throughout the work are in gold and silver layers, with embellishments in the shape of halos, wings, and clouds. Aside from these metallic accents the overall work is sombre in tone, in dark browns, muted greys and blacks.
The title of the work suggests that these shadows share an extended family lineage, and the cluster formation in which they are hung further reinforces this—they look as if they were to be displayed on the wall of a family home. However, these portraits lack the facial details that would link them to a specific person, time, or place. What is left is the evocation of the human form.
Not bound by medium, Judith Wright works across painting, drawing, sculpture, video and installation, often creating complex dialogues between different media. In appearance, her work can range from near minimalism to elaborate figuration and is centred on ideas around the fragility of life, love, loss, and grief. This work was acquired for the QUT Art Collection in 2015 after its appearance in the solo exhibition Judith Wright: Desire which focussed on a series of works begun in 2003 that imagine and restage the life of a lost child.
Judith Wright received her Master of Fine Arts from QUT in 2002 and went on to teach here and at the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University. Her work is represented in university and public collections in Australia and internationally.