Freedom and restraint: a series of drawings and collage
Julia Higgs, untitled (studio play), 2018, collage and graphite on paper.
Julia Higgs curated by Hugh Cullimore
This exhibition involves drawing, printmaking and collage influenced by the photo montage works of Dadaist Hannah Hoch and the freedom of Abstract Expressionism. Julia Higgs has used these ideas combined with her own drawing driven processed based experimental studio practice to create this latest suite of work. Predominantly using black ink and cut images to create a series of works that are not driven by pre-conceived ideas but by acts of intuition. Through this process the mind is free to choose where each line will go, or where each image fragment is placed. The prints are created by running items from around the studio through the press on inked plates onto thin paper. The display and installation has been developed to maximise the attention given to the works as a whole. The floating translucency of the paper, the print and the decollage interacting in planned and spontaneous ways interrupted by the framing as the only physical interruption to the compositions.
Julia Higgs is a Melbourne based artist working with sculpture, drawing and print making who graduated from the MFA programme at the ANU School of Art and Design in 2017. She has practised and shown around Victoria and the ACT.
Hugh Cullimore recently graduated from the ANU's Art History and Curatorship program with First-Class Honours. He currently works as an assistant at the Drill Hall Gallery and in the Research Department at the Australian War Memorial.
