Restraint 2022

photo credit: Christian Capurro

Flinders Lane Gallery 22 Mar - 13 Apr 2022 Virtual Tour

Over the last two years, a new world presented itself out of the unravelling of a global pandemic. As the human population withdrew, the environment demonstrated that regeneration was possible with reduced human interference. The skies and waterways cleared, traffic vanished, and wildlife reclaimed haunts long ago surrendered to cars and people. It was this dichotomy of life and death that served Melinda Schawel’s philosophy and pushed her into responding in the only way she knew how – artmaking. Following on from her recent exhibitions that were centred around themes of interconnectedness, Restraint was created as a kind of quiet acceptance of the altered world in which we now find ourselves. 

From afar Schawel’s works appear as giant ink blots, as if a quill has sat bleeding into the paper – or are they snapshots of rockpool ecology, or the aerial depiction of the Australian landscape? It’s on closer inspection that her works are textural, tactile and take on an existence of their own. Life blooms in organic forms that seep like tears into the thick skin of the paper. Jewels of colour - algae green, watery blue, and crimson tinged ink float from the surface, suspended in organic forms that mimic the natural world and the order of things. The Fibonacci sequence comes to mind to remind us that we are all connected – all life forms, whether animal, plant or fungi. 

It’s Schawel’s commitment to her chosen medium that reveals the most. Her process starts with noise cancelling headphones – enabling complete disassociation from her surroundings into a subliminal world of her own constructed reality. It is within this course of removal that begins the act of discovery. Schawel highlights the importance of the physical act of making work as paramount to the mental state that is so significant to her method. Ink and pencil highlight forms – this is the gentlest part of her making – while the deliberate tearing, drilling and etching of paper is a cathartic removal – the end result being a state of calm for the artist and for the viewer. 

The sea anemone that proliferates in rock pools along the Victorian Surf Coast serves as a muse for this series; its ability to withstand changing tides allows it to thrive in the harshest of conditions. Drifting appears as an expanse of white, the anemone-like shape of which sits floating amongst drilled bubbles, subtle curls and streaks of watery blues. It is no surprise then that Schawel’s fascination with these ‘flowers of the sea’ aligns with her continual longing to be a part of this soothing, weightless, undersea world. In Evergreen, a map-like arrangement of organic shapes appear to float; islands of verdant greens and earthy browns take on a presence of their own, whilst we are left pondering how far the stain of the human problem will seep before we are all metaphorically lost at sea.

From a passionate process that’s driven to create abstraction, Schawel’s work culminates in the expression of a narrative around rejuvenation, documentation and a passion for process and materials. By engaging with her work,  we are reminded that the flow of life and the inevitability of death are what connects every living organism on Earth, and that fleeting moments of beauty must be celebrated, because what is today, may not be tomorrow. 

Joey Hespe