VIEWING ROOM
PAIGE NORTHWOOD
'MEDITATIONS ON RED’
Paige Northwood
on womanhood II, 2021
Found pigment, charcoal, acrylic on board
63 x 63 cm (framed)
SOLD
Paige Northwood
sense fragments, 2021
Found pigment, ash, clay on board
63 x 63 cm
AUD $ 2,200
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Jerico Contemporary is delighted to present our fifth solo exhibition with Australian artist Paige Northwood, ‘Meditations On Red’. The exhibition is now open and will continue through to Saturday 10th April 2021.
Existing at the heart of central Australia is a desert, one worn and weathered by time. Red earth, red sun, red sky. All red. A place where dust storms gather and roll across the land; where fires warm bodies into the night, flames moving in time with the wind; where rich, iron-coloured clay emerges from beneath the ground, flecked with remnants of the world that exists below. Within these visions and shared memories of the iconic Australian landscape lies the impetus behind Northwood’s latest exhibition, ‘Meditations On Red’.
Paige Northwood
throw your childhood in the fire, 2021
Found pigment, ash, charcoal, acrylic on canvas
153 x 130 cm
SOLD
Through her creative process centred in ritual and catharsis, the exhibition sees Northwood explore themes of ceremony, womanhood, and life cycles. Drawing on her experiences of living on country in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and Ntaria (Hermannsburg), informed by her time living and working alongside Aboriginal artists and communities, through her embodied approach to mark-making Northwood reflects on all she has learned and encountered. Extending on the artist’s previous bodies of work that have utilised found materials and pigments reminiscent of her immediate surroundings in the desert of central Australia, the exhibition considers the interconnectedness between place, spirituality, and transformation.
Bringing together 13 paintings and 1 ceramic vessel, the exhibition weaves Northwood’s interest in the historic symbology of red together with her own lived experiences, echoing her personal resonance with the pigment, as well as its significance around the world. “I became interested in different cultural uses of red ochres for mortuary customs and other ceremony (high iron content is said to stimulate the body and also represent blood), as well as representations of colour from the Chakra system that originated in India from the earliest Sanskrit literary records, the Vedas,” explains Northwood.
These influences saw the artist consider notions of ceremony and rites of passage, looking at the paths we travel into different stages of our lives. More specifically, these paintings see Northwood reflect on womanhood and the transformative stages that have long shaped the female experience, from childhood to adulthood. In keeping with the conflicting feelings associated with the colour red — violence/danger, lust/love — Northwood also acknowledges the end of these life cycles through her direct exposure to death and decay in the harsh climate of the desert. Northwood explains, “Being exposed to the reality of higher mortality rates and cultural differences in funeral ceremonies in Indigenous communities lead to [my] deeper connection to the cycles of life and death”. From the red earth of country’s heart to the rivers that run inside each of us, ‘Meditations On Red’ explores notions of life and death, serving as a reminder of our mortality.
Paige Northwood
cicada, 2021
Found pigment, ash, clay, acrylic on canvas
153 x 130 cm
SOLD
Paige Northwood
meditations on red, 2021
Found pigment, ash, charcoal, acrylic on canvas
153 x 130 cm
SOLD
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY:
Australian artist Paige Northwood.
Paige Northwood was born in 1988. Her solo exhibitions include, ‘Love and Fear’, Jerico Contemporary (2020), ‘Company’, Jerico Contemporary, Sydney (2020), 'Sacred Life', Jerico Contemporary, Sydney (2019) and ‘The Mind That Bends’, Jerico Contemporary, Sydney (2018). Her group exhibitions include, 'Here & Now', Wollongong Art Gallery (2018), ‘Barkers & Biters’, aMBUSH, Sydney (2018), ‘Synchronicity’, Clifton School of Arts, Clifton (2016), ‘Overture’, Jerico Contemporary, Sydney (2016). The artist currently lives and works in Stanwell Park, NSW.