Video transcript
ARTEXPRESS 2023 – Body of work analysis – 06. Audrey Napper – Ce n'est pas une maison de poupée

[intro music]

CAROL MCGILVERY: Hello. I'm Carol McGilvery. I'm the head teacher, creative and performing arts, at Kincumber High School.

DANIELLE PALMER: And I'm Danielle Palmer, visual arts teacher at Tempe High School. We're going to talk about an artwork which is a sculptural piece, and it's got a French title which translates to 'This is not a doll's house', and I won't attempt to say it in French.

[laughter]

CAROL MCGILVERY: And this work is-- it's a highly accomplished sculpture here, Dani, that we see the material-- a definite commitment to the material practice in this work, in that the materials used seem to be, for me anyway, a collection of materials that the student has collected over a period of time and could see the potential.

The clever thing about this work is that the student could see the potential in these particular materials. So, there's a very purposeful choice in every technical decision that is made within this work and a very clear nod to Marcel Duchamp and the found object as well in terms of art history canon.

DANIELLE PALMER: Absolutely, and on that connection, Joseph Cornell and his use of found objects that present a nostalgia, and there's a real nostalgia in this piece, and it's so full of detail. But you're right. It's that repurposing of these little found objects to create this, what looks like a row of houses.

And it's the foresight of the student, in this case, where they've found this little lacy piece or something or a little piece of wire, and they've gone, 'That's going to be my telegraph pole,' or 'That's going to be the sticker that goes on the balcony.' The amount of detail here is extraordinary. Absolutely.

CAROL MCGILVERY: Yeah, absolutely. It's an impressive, it's a knowledgeable, it's a sophisticated piece of work, where we can see there are 3 houses here in a row, and they're all in separate points of decay, I'd suggest. Yet there is still a feeling that these houses, these dwellings are inhabited.

DANIELLE PALMER: There's signs of life.

CAROL MCGILVERY: And there's signs of life, and there's signs of love in this work as well, that there are elements, Dani, of decay in this work. Yet there's a definite observation on someone's world here. So, it's a narrative. There's a story about the human condition in this work that is so-- it's just appealing, and it's engaging. Yeah, it opens up to us.

DANIELLE PALMER: Definitely. I mean, the title, which, as I translated from French saying, 'This is not a doll's house', is saying, 'This is someone's real house, and the fact that I've made it like a model doesn't mean that it's something for play. This is actually a reflection of the real world.'

And I'd say, if I had to guess, this student has tapped into a cultural element within their family. It looks like even possibly the student has been taken overseas with their parents and been shown, this is where I grew up, for instance. It has that sense of the ramshackle village that you visit in, like, an Asian-- like Thailand or Cambodia or somewhere like that, where once upon a time, it was a brand-new place. But through neglect and challenging circumstances, it has been left to run down. But those little signs of life that you're still talking about, like the rug hanging over the balcony or--

CAROL MCGILVERY: The little sockets.

DANIELLE PALMER: Yeah. Or the people sitting outside of their house.

CAROL MCGILVERY: And the little newspaper on top of the table and the chairs, where people might have a cup of tea. So, it really accesses your imagination in terms of creating a narrative within this piece, and that, for me, is why it sits in that really top upper band in terms of it being-- achieving that sophistication and achieving and demonstrating the student's commitment to practice.

And also, Dani, there's a bit of obtuse, there's-- it's obtuse. It's sort of unexpected as well. So, it keeps you-- as I think I've said it, it keeps opening up for me, and I want to--

DANIELLE PALMER: It does.

CAROL MCGILVERY: Well, the other observation that I have about this work is just the material practice in terms of the accessibility of this type of practice in any classroom, where these elements and this type of collection of materials could be found in any art room across the state, and they're accessible materials, and they're familiar materials.

DANIELLE PALMER: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I can see elements of any art storeroom, I would imagine, would have these-- corrugated cardboard, foam core board. There's offcuts from the laser cutter down in TAS. So, the kids go and-- scavenging wherever they can throughout the school. There's bits of straw. So, it's that-- anyone could make this. It looks a little complicated. But really, when you break it down, it's your materials that are just everyday found, lowbrow art materials, which is totally suited to this work.

CAROL MCGILVERY: Sure. A little bit of hot glue gunning perhaps, winding with some wire, piercing, a little bit of nailing and tacking, just really easy methods and techniques to use and to be successful with.

DANIELLE PALMER: There's so much to discover, and it just keeps coming out at you. The more you look, the more you find and, like the ceramic work we were discussing earlier, there's this level of consistency in application that the student-- again, this is a student who's in the art room all the time. They've well and truly put more than a hundred hours' worth of work in this. This is well and truly-- this is-- I would hate to imagine just how much work has gone into this.

The surface treatment, the paint, the way they've gone back in with the paint, the ageing that they've created here, this sense of history, the layering, the peeling of the paint off the walls, the--

CAROL MCGILVERY: The winding, the piercing, the placement, the arrangement.

DANIELLE PALMER: The slightly falling off.

CAROL MCGILVERY: Yeah. Those decisions, those really considered decisions.

DANIELLE PALMER: Yeah, they're subtle. There's a subtlety underneath some of these choices this student has made, and you could photograph this from so many different angles and turn it into another series of artworks, I think. It has that potential to keep being pushed.

CAROL MCGILVERY: I can see that.

DANIELLE PALMER: You could actually film a little series of-- a little animation or something. This could be the set, the backdrop of something else. So, it's just-- it's so rich with--

CAROL MCGILVERY: --possibilities.

DANIELLE PALMER: Yes. It doesn't just stop here to me, and I wonder if this student is still engaged in some way, shape or form because this doesn't-- it doesn't look like-- it ends with possibilities. It feels like it just opens up to more. It's way beyond a Stage 6 work to me. I would expect to see this in a Paddington gallery.

CAROL MCGILVERY: Yeah, sure. It has a real wow factor.

DANIELLE PALMER: It's got that James Powditch quality of, 'I found this. I found that. I put it together,' and look at this aesthetic, the aesthetic that it creates.

CAROL MCGILVERY: Yes, yes. Very, very harking back to Joseph Cornell's practice with 'Hotel Eden' as well. Yeah. Yes, just an exceptional body of work, Dani.

DANIELLE PALMER: Absolutely.

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