Exhibition

27.10.06 - 18.11.06
Studio 12
Michelle Ussher
Dragonflyeye

"I had a dream a small anodized metal flying machine landed on my eye. As I reached to touch it, a cool fluid ran out of my eye and down my face. Sometime after this dream, a drawing pin punctured my eye. To check if I could still see colours correctly a doctor poured different fluids into my eye. Fearful of losing my vision, I thought how can something so traumatic - be so beautiful.’ - Michelle Ussher

Michelle Ussher’s delicate pencil and watercolour wall-drawing Dragonflyeye suggests a symbiosis between man and nature, where a young man submits to the zealous advances of a magnificent insect that sits upon his left eye. Contemplating the complex relationship of vision to the processes of perception and self-awareness, Ussher’s drawing sets up an ambiguous affiliation between the two beings and continues the artist’s longstanding interest in the vulnerability of humanity and nature.

Michelle Ussher completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at the VCA in 2002. In recent years she has held solo exhibitions at the Melbourne Art Fair (with Helen Johnson), Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces’ Project Room, Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne 2006; Room 103, Auckland, New Zealand 2006; Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney 2006; and Bus Gallery, Melbourne 2005. Selected group exhibitions include Golden eye, Linden Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2006; Figuration, Deloitte, Grovsner Place, Sydney 2006; and Primavera 2005, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 2005. Ussher is a founding member of CLUBSProject, and is represented by Darren Knight Gallery, Sydney.