What do you see when you look up?

When you look at a cloud in the sky you could see almost anything: a face, a fantastical creature, a strange machine, or welcome relief from the heat, or another dull day of rain.

There as many ways of looking at these microscopic particles of vapour in the sky as there are people in the world.

This exhibition comprises over 150 small paintings of clouds. The works are not true to one style, and few rules were adhered to in terms of colour, composition, and finish. Some are able to hold their own on the gallery wall, others rely on being part of the whole collection for their impact, and a few are so abominable they just shouldn't be there at all.

In contrast to the dozens of small, loose paintings of clouds there is one large, representational painting executed in a highly controlled manner. The painting depicts a woman trying to tie a cloud to the ground. It represents the romantic ideas of harnessing something which is constantly changing and far beyond our reach.

Seen as a whole the viewer bounces between two seemingly different, yet interrelated options - to gaze and wonder at things in the realm of imagination and fantasy, or to try to grasp and pin down an elusive 'solution'.

The works can be acquired through an exchange. This exchange can be something as practical as goods or services, something as intangible as an idea, or the promise of a good deed to another, so long as it is fair, and can be documented.

"Capture what you can" oil on canvas 185cm x185cm

Exhibition invite

Cloud Exchange: What do you see when you look up?

The exhibition What do you see when you look up includes an exchange project. A hand made receipt book accompanied the works on show and viewers are invited to offer something in exchange for a painting.

This element of the project experiments with Marxist ideologies, investigating the value of my own work in relation to the skills and ‘stuff’ that other people have and are willing to share or part with. This method of exchange demands a more personal approach to the acquisition of objects, confuses the power balance between user and maker and highlights the diversity of value judgements, both through the variety of offers made, and perceptions of those offers.

Opening night with people writing in the receipt book

receipt #41

receipt #28

Below are some of the things offered in exchange for a painting (along with the description of the work given by the person acquiring it).

• A home made cinnamon tea cake (little blue and white clouds).
• A studio work space (fluffy clouds).
• $20 (red and blue clouds).
• A photo print (another one I want that’s spoken for)
• 1 Beef carcass cut up and made into steak sausages and mince delivered, organic and gluten free (a woman trying to tie the cloud down).
• Will negotiate (fairy floss).
• To make you coffee in the studio for a season (Engorged puddles of rain journeying through a blue sky).
• An aluminium heart made for you (lotus flower).
• $30 to a charity – will let you know which one (burgundy med size).
• An espresso Martini, tour of Melbourne & a bed to sleep in (Pink and red clouds).
• A Cook book I wrote (mauve sky and white clouds).
• 1 preserved brain (the little blue one).
• A free dance/tap lesson (mint green swirl cloud).
• To help Kate take the artwork down in 3 weeks time (vibrant sunset in New Guinea).
• One small drawing &/or 1/2 dozen fresh eggs (red sails in the sunset but the sails are cotton – raw cotton).
• A drawing from first semesters work (Purple & pink clouds).
• Anything (clouds).
• Three wishes (Flowers).
• Some lettuce and spinach form my garden (painting that looks like a green sausage).
• 20 coffees from 27 Deakin (a blue sky with white clouds on paper that is not square).
• Pink salt and Jam (darkness with some white fluffiness).
• Framed photo of the South Sudanese dancing in the mall (red w purple pink fluffy clouds).
• To my friend who’s little boy is very sick, a meal every day for one week.
• A poem about a witch, and a fresh chocolate cake with orange icing (a greenish blue river with light green/dark green bushes).
• A fabric summer hat and a fixed fence for a friend (an orange inlet in the white forest, birds eye view).
• A donation to St Vincent de Paul society and Wesley mission (an explosion of two colours).
• A free roller-skating lesson to Kate and a person of choice – (I’m goodish) you’ll be safe :) (a strawberry lolly has been melted on top of a light shade).
• Dinner at our house (a nesting bird).
• 5 free lunches at the café (green pastures).
• a delicious hamper of Croatian treats made with love (a shiny piece of happiness).
• A year’s supply of trims and blow-waves for you or someone in need (you holding the cloud)
• A piano recital of Mozart’s sonata in C (complete) from memory (blue swirly things).
• $50 to a charity of your choice (fluffy white clouds).
• $40 and a donation to my local animal shelter (red sky and white clouds).
• You 1 nights accommodation at Pincally Station B&B Nth of Broken Hill (purple and red clouds, green and purple clouds)
• Window art to be painted at your workplace (green clouds)
• Financial services for life (mine) + a boat ride a year (the painting that looks like a tethered cloud).
• A piece of my artwork (a bubbling heaven evolving from the bottom)
• A piece of my artwork (strawberry ice cream).
• A bottle of your favourite wine (strawberries and cream).
• A small drawing/painting (purple background and orange clouds).
• Artwork in return for (red sky white clouds).