SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY2 Albert Street Richmond VIC 3121 Australia Telephone +613 9421 0857info@sophiegannongallery.com.au www.sophiegannongallery.com.au

5. Julia deVille

A survey

25 September – 12 October 2019

NOTHING OF IT LIVES (EXCEPT MY EYE) [AND YOURS]

‘There is blood and life beneath skin that is made of paint’, ‘earth and epoch beneath marks that are grass covered landscapes’, ‘blood coursing through the veins of sheep and men’, ‘there is pain and joy, there is sleep and savannah, there is muscle and bone beneath flesh that is made only of memory’, ‘ there is a wind, that fell away four hundred years ago still rushing through flowers that are pigment alone’ – these are notes I made in the gallery in Florence. The final line: ‘nothing of it lives (except my eye)’.

MARK. CLEAVE. BRUTE. POLISH. AWE.

CLEAVE/GRAVITY.

MAN IS A BUBBLE, from the Latin proverb, HOMO BULLA EST, can be traced back in proverbial usage to the first century BC. However, the maxim which declares the brevity of life, gained in popularity and usage during the moralistic sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with the rise and popularity of Dutch Vanitas painting. Vanitas paintings utilised symbolic links to quotidian ephemera to create elaborate compositions around the notion of transience, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death. Most popular amongst the symbols were skulls (of the certainty of death), rotten fruit (of decay), smoke (of the ephemeral), watches (of time) and to a lesser degree, flowers (of decay and the futility of beauty), bubbles (of transience) and ribbons (of futility and the vanity of wealth) [adolescent zebra, interference, black diamonds, uncut diamond, cultured pearls, sterling silver, white gold, white rhodium, black rhodium, bronze, silver nitrate, stillborn lion cub, courage, rubies, uncut diamonds, antique cot, velvet, satin, fox, anti entropy, gold plate, gold, rose cut champagne diamonds, champagne diamond beads, chainmail, feathers, satin ribbon, walnut, glass, parrot, resin, wood, glass, rat, yersinia pestis, freshwater pearls, antique soup spoon].

The effect of chiaroscuro (of darkness and light) was perfected during the Italian (High) Renaissance (considered to be the zenith of Western painting). Over many centuries the Florentine painters utilised allegorical symbolism (e.g. flowers) across their religious and domestic works. Movement and stasis in art is considered to have been perfected at this time, in this region, by these Masters: Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci. From da Vinci, I borrowed GEOMETRY in the form of forged metal. From Raphael, I borrowed the notion of his final work (that he worked on until his death) TRANSFIGURATION, an astonishing allegory on the nature of transformation and from Michelangelo, his TERRIBILITÀ – the ability to instil a sense of awe – or at least the ambition of it.

BRUTE/GRACE

We must be light because we make work in their shadow. Thirty years after my father died, an occasion that I have come to view as my first, punctuating witness of transition (from living to dead) I made work in Florence – the earthly home of chiaroscuro. I have come to identify my obsession with nature and her essential grace as a result of this formative and determining experience. Further, and also I believe resultantly, I have in the course of my personal life been drawn to succour two souls transitioning their gender – ‘drawn’ by a profound affection and the inexplicable tangibility (to my eyes alone) of their male, ‘spirit’, despite their both being born in female form. My ‘seeing’ them, respectively, somehow seemed to endorse the legitimacy of their maleness, in all the ways, across time and space. My fathers, ‘transition’, had culminated in the loss of his body and a brutal, ceaseless grief followed. The ‘transition’ of the second soul seemed contingent on ‘our’ parting and a vast, black grief followed. The third, accompanied me to make my work abroad as he had done many times before, but this time it was Florence and we were to make a work on transition…

For three weeks we slept opposite each other in simple, smaller-than-single beds in a dark, ancient and religious room. In the day we went about sourcing materials and constructing the work. In that room and on those three weeks of days and nights, it was impossible to avoid the grief, perhaps sleep would have allowed respite, but for a lot of the time jetlag only served to intensify the silence around it. I was unable to lock the door and sob. I was unable to rest. For the sake of the work I had to remain whole, I couldn’t shatter (as I had done on the first two rounds). The grief was pure gravity and I could do nothing but experience its bulk.

But there are two things that make up transition and they are gravity and grace.

‘We’ had tied 1000 bows (of futility) and I knew them to be prayers: attention, repetition and petition. ‘We’ had visited farms and orchards and he had cut branches for me (once more) in teeming rain. ‘We’ had seen chestnuts so astonishing that no man can expect to see their like twice in one lifetime, we had composed the gnarliest branches of persimmon ever gifted the empire which I understood to be the true ‘apple’ of the bible’s first woman. ‘We’ had made a work on transition, ‘we’ had ensured a souls transition, ‘we’ had each become sovereign once more… but this time, rather than grief, it was a vast grace that followed.

A publication recently asked me to write ‘on the soul’ which I thought astute because I see them so clearly but am essentially blind to bodies. I think deVille is the same way – in the dullness of a stone she sees refracted, brilliant light; in the noiseless remains of an infant lion cub she sees a curled soul taking in the ancient sun. In the empty bulk of an adolescent zebra she sees a being that has danced through the history of man as his unicorn. In metal she sees a ring that might bind two souls for a lifetime and slide on and off the fingers and loves of their progeny for countless generations.

We two sculpt the living and the dead, we make marks in darkness and light, movement and stasis, the sacred and the profane. We two animate yesterday’s ‘flowers’, we shape them until they seem to live again. Our respective mediums metaphor obedience to and accord with nature, they epitomize the experience of living (and dying), they demonstrate the deepest philosophical concerns of man and they emerge and surround us, mysteriously from above and below the surface of the entire earth. Embedded within the hollowing, intersecting, cathedral of lines that make up life and its contingent other, death there is gravity and there is grace.

Dr Lisa Cooper

Julia deVilleSomething wicked this way comes, 2018

adolescent zebra, interference, black diamonds 6.4ct, uncut diamonds 75ct, cultured pearls, sterling silver, 18ct white gold, white rhodium, black rhodium, bronze, silver nitrate

212 x 142 x 54 cm$108,000 incl. GST

Julia deVilleMajesty, 2012

Spiky (adolescent stag), sovereignty, glass, rubies 2.66ct, seed pearls, uncut diamonds, sterling silver, bronze, gold plate, black rhodium plate, antique Reed & Barton sterling silver carving

set, enamel paint, glass case92 x 126 x 66 cm$33,000 incl. GST

Julia deVilleThe folly of the second law of thermodynamics, 2018

fox, antientropy, sterling silver, gold plate, 18ct gold, 9ct gold, rose cut champagne diamonds 3.33ct, champagne diamond beads 20ct, chainmail, feathers, satin ribbon, walnut, glass

70 x 111 x 15 cm$33,000 incl. GST

Julia deVilleKitten Drawn Hearse, 2012

kitten, black garnet beads, sterling silver, pear-shaped sapphire, egret feathers, wood, glass44 x 32 x 100 cm $19,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleIn the night I wake and feel like I’m dying, 2018

stillborn lion cub, courage, rubies 3ct, uncut diamonds 0.60ct, antique cot, velvet, satin99 x 114 x 57 cm$19,900 incl. GST

Julia deVillePurring cars and pouring rain, 2018

kitten, whimsy, sterling silver, black garnet beads, mystic spinel, pear cut black sapphire 1.13ct, egret feathers, wood, leather, glass

29 x 63 x 20 cm$15,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleLamentation, 2012

lamb, glass, rubies 0.45ct, uncut diamonds 2ct, sterling silver, gold plate, silver plate platter, enamel paint

9 x 76 x 46 cm $13,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleNevermore, 2010

stillborn fawn, black garnet beads, sterling silver, coque feathers, chain mail, glass, glass case41 x 59 x 27 cm

$11,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleDark Heart Mobile, 2014

starling, my pulse, onyx, freeze-dried hearts, sterling silver, pearls, oak branches, quail eggs, uncut diamonds40 x 60 x 25 cm $9,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleLa Catastrophe, 2018

stillborn lion cub, gallantry, Akoya pearl, glass, wood6 x 48 x 30 cm

$9,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleInterference pattern, 2018

carving by Joe Sheehan, marble, amorreha, rubies 2.01ct4 x 30 x 21 cm

$9,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleSome animals are more equal than others, 2013

piglet, antique scales, antique lace, black spinel, uncut diamonds, bronze35 x 40 x 40 cm$8,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleFamiliar, 2014

black cat, garmonbozia, uncut diamonds 4ct, black sapphire 1.23ct, sterling silver, black rhodi-um, glass, walnut, glass case

58 x 66 x 18 cm $8,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleJesus Ispariot, 2018

parrot, thirty pieces of silver, rose cut black diamond 0.65ct, resin, wood, glass58 x 42 x 14 cm$7,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleBrown Caviar, 2014

baby rabbit, a four-beat gate, leather, hematite, mystic spinel, smoky quartz, sterling silver, gold plate, egret feathers

33 x 20 9 cm$6,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleMishicanca, 2012

kitten, copper pot, black sapphires 20.24ct17 x 33 x 18 cm $6,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleSycophantom, 2018

cat, autoimmunity, sterling silver, black rhodium, black diamonds, marcasite, glass, walnut62 x 65 x 20 cm $7,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleLordosis, 2018

rat, Yersinia pestis, rose cut black diamonds 1.10ct, freshwater pearls, 18ct white gold, sterling silver, antique soup spoon, wood, glass

40 x 30 x 23 cm$7,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleCornflower, 2014

stillborn puppy, unrequited life, antique platter, sterling silver, glass case15 x 37 x 43 cm$7,700 incl. GST

Julia deVilleOrpheus, 2014

rat, resonance, hematite, uncut diamonds, sterling silver, mystic spinel, egret feathers, leather18 x 15 x 10 cm $5,900 incl. GST

Julia deVillePersian Cat Rug, 2018

cat, synaesthesia, uncut diamond granules 30ct, rubber, glass8 x 114 x 74 cm $5,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleCaesar, 2014

stillborn kitten, an incision in the abdomen, antique sterling silver & ivory chariot, rose cut black diamonds 0.80ct, uncut diamonds, glass case

23 x 26 x 21 cm $5,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleCapitulate and fade, 2014

stillborn puppy, antique sterling silver goblet, rose cut black diamond 1.04ct 17 x 16 x 16 cm$5,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleThe freeing of a life form from the dark chrysalis of matter, 2018

fox, sadness, Akoya pearl, rubber, glass13 x 110 x 75 cm$5,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleThe Sword of Damocles, 2008

human skull, sterling silver, glitter, base metal60 x 13 x 20 cm$4,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleNeapolitan Bonbonaparte, 2013

chicks, onyx, antique silver spoon10 x 28 x 11 cm$4,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleYour funeral, my trial, 2015

sparrow, folklore, black diamonds 0.63ct, antique glue chipped glass jewel box, glass case16 x 30 x 19 cm$4,400 incl. GST

Julia deVilleNeophobia, 2014

rat, a diaphragmatic breath, antique plate, rose cut black diamond 0.35ct, antique Victorian lace, glass case

14 x 40 x 40 cm $4,400 incl. GST

Julia deVillePhilosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 2012

diamond fire tail finch, bronze, black rhodium plate, rose cut black diamonds 0.16ct, rubies11.5 x 10.5 x 6 cm$3,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleCamellia Sinensis, 2012

red-browed finch, rose cut black diamonds 0.16ct, antique teapot, glass case28 x 21 x 25 cm$3,900 incl. GST

Julia deVillePhantasmagoria, 2014

white & brown rat, 2.01ct black spinel, uncut diamond granules, antique lace, wood, glass46 x 22 x 15 cm$3,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleMini Antoinette, 2015

mouse, a sharpened guillotine, black diamonds 0.31ct, antique French jewel box, glass case22 x 20 x 16 cm$3,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleEggnog, 2013

chicks, onyx, Wedgwood black basalt jug, glass, wood13 x 10 x 11 cm$3,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleAs Venus passes between the Sun and Earth, 2012

cat, glass, antique chauffe plat 31 x 49 x 36 cm$3,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleMouse Party, 2013

mice, black diamonds, antique sterling silver Tiffany goblet16 x 15 x 15 cm$3,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleFeed, 2014

two mice, black diamonds 0.18ct, antique spoon, glass case14 x 30 x 20 cm $3,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleLiberty, 2012

finch, dominion, metal cloche, rose cut black diamonds 0.16ct21 x 21 x 27 cm$3,400 incl. GST

Julia deVilleRat Rug, 2009

rat, rat vertebra, glass case 12.5 x 43 x 28 cm$3,300 incl. GST

Julia deVilleDaisy, 2014

chick, alter ego, onyx, antique jewellery box, glass bell jar34 x 21 x 21 cm$3,300 incl. GST

Julia deVilleRuby Heart Starling, 2008

starling, sterling silver, black rhodium & gold plate, rubies, antique frame30 x 35 x 18 cm$2,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleÀ la vanille, 2013

two chicks, onyx, antique ice cream scoop7 x 28 x 8 cm

$2,500 incl. GST

Julia deVilleYellow Emperor, 2013

two chicks, onyx, antique ice cream scoop, glass case11 x 45.5 x 21.5 cm

$2,300 incl. GST

Julia deVilleFrench Vanilla, 2013

chick, onyx, antique ice cream scoop8 x 28 x 6 cm

$1,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleLeporidae Mount, 2009

rabbit head, garnets (eyes), black garnet, sterling silver, 6000-year-old petrified wood17 x 11 x 7 cm

$1,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleBlack Beauty, 2008

horse skull, flocking25 x 47 x 35 cm$1,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleVenereum Vitae, 2018, and Orchidectomy, 2018

43 pairs of knickers, cotton, extravasate, glitter, paint, glue, ex-husband’s wedding cufflinks (blackened sterling silver)

four pairs of knickers, cotton, fear, embroidery by Adipocere (Josh Weatherlake)$1,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleAbsconditus Corvus Frugilegus, 2009

jarrah, sterling silver, black garnets, cotton, amethyst28 x 10 x 10 cm$900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleLearning how to survive infinity: Hologram of Rocking Alpaca, 2018

holographic film, dark matter, plexiglass, mirror, resin, LED, hologram printed by Holographics North, frame by Kate Rohde

62 x 74 cmedition 2 of 5

$9,900 incl. GST

Julia deVillePlenum I: Hologram of Sarcophagus Brooch with Skeleton Bracelet, 2018

holographic film, photons, glass, wood, LED34 x 14.5 x 15 cm$4,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleMysterium Tremendum II: Hologram of Little Bat, 2018

holographic film, photons, glass, wood, LED34 x 14.5 x 15 cm$4,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleSaccade I: Hologram of 20000 Leagues Ring, 2018holographic film, photons, glass, wood, LED

34 x 14.5 x 15 cm$3,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleGod is a circle whose centre is everywhere, and circumference nowhere: Hologram of Capitulate and fade, 2018

holographic film, glass, wood39.5 x 47.5 cm

$3,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleThe dream is dreaming itself: Hologram of Gunclub, 2018

holographic film, photons, glass, wood, LED34 x 14.5 x 15 cm$3,300 incl. GST

Julia deVillePlenum III: Hologram of Sarcophagus Brooch with Skeleton Bracelet, 2018

holographic film, photons, glass, resin, frame by Kate Rohde13 x 13 cm

$2,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleApparition: Hologram of Nest, 2018

holographic film, waves, glass, resin, frame by Kate Rohde19 x 19 cm

$2,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleGod is a laser beam: Hologram of Mini Antoinette, 2018

holographic film, parallax, glass, resin, frame by Kate Rohde19 x 19 cm

$2,900 incl. GST

Julia deVilleAleph: Hologram of Capitulate and Fade, 2018

holographic film, a beam, glass, resin, frame by Kate Rohde19 x 19 cm

$2,600 incl. GST

Julia deVilleSacade II: Hologram of 20000 Leagues Ring, 2018

holographic film, photons, glass, resin, frame by Kate Rohde13 x 13 cm

$1,900 incl. GST

Adam WallacavagePurple chandelier

lamp parts, felt, epoxy clay, spray paint, acrylic paint, epoxy resin76 x 56 x 56 cm $8,700 incl. GST

Adam WallacavageYellow/lime chandelier

lamp parts, felt, epoxy clay, spray paint, acrylic paint, epoxy resin66 x 56 x 56 cm $7,300 incl. GST

SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY2 Albert Street Richmond VIC 3121 Australia Telephone +613 9421 0857info@sophiegannongallery.com.au www.sophiegannongallery.com.au