Talitha Kennedy is based in Melbourne/Naarm Australia.
Working in black leather soft-sculpture, ink drawing on paper and installation, Talitha Kennedy’s process driven practice considers the necessary destruction of things to make the new.
Her works embody an aesthetic of fecundity where creative forces are in eternal flux between the living and dying. Hands-on laborious methods and highly personal use of materials allow an encounter with the observed world as beings to engage with as a tactile encounter.
Sculptures reflect on the relationships between the materials – leather specifically tanned for making gloves; the process and dexterous techniques – the reanimation of dead animal skin that has been industrialised for uses of human comfort and protection; and the subjects of gesture, touch and intimacy.
Drawings are repetitive marks on paper where a skin of surfaces is woven by pen and ink. Intuitive stitch-like marks follow the wrinkles and slopes of crumpled paper conjuring things in flux such as decay, cobwebs or fleeting shadows.
The organic form – indeterminately evoking animal, plant or landscape – brings into question our cultural failure to know ourselves as part of the natural environment; the tactile engagement with the works provide a comfort device for our separation anxieties with nature.
Recent solo exhibitions include commercial galleries and artist run spaces in Melbourne, Sydney, Townsville and Darwin as well as inclusion in numerous group shows and commissioned touring projects nationally. Accomplished Masters by Research in Creative Arts with an Australian Post-Graduate Award and awarded a Qantas Foundation Encouragement of Contemporary Art Award and ArtStart Grant from Australia Council.