Paintings catalogue mixed emotions

THE interplay between memory and emotion is the lynchpin behind visual artist Petra Rodgers’ latest exhibition.

Her upcoming show A Catalogue of Feelings, is displaying about 25 paintings and drawings on plywood-panel canvases, depicting musical instruments and objects like sweaters, rugs, and carpets.

The subject matter is a way of coupling her recent past with her ongoing present.

“I separated from my husband last year and went through the grieving process of the end of a marriage,” she said.

“I was thinking a lot of things like carpets, blankets, and rugs from our house and that translated into a lot of the pictures I’ve done, and based them from images I’d seen in catalogues.

“I since met somebody else and started a relationship with someone who’s a musician and have become more interested in music so that’s the other side of it.

“The whole show’s a bunch of mixed emotions. It’s a feeling of loss and grief about the end of a marriage but also the beginning of something new and exciting.”

Having recently rekindled her childhood habit of flipping through catalogues, Rodgers took much of her inspiration from items found on the page alongside photographs of her own objects.

“I’ve always been attracted to catalogues in general, clothing catalogues, things about music or nature,” she said.

“It’s really trying to get the feelings of what I’m looking at. I’m not trying to do a literal translation of an image.”

Rodgers said A Catalogue of Feelings is the first step in a new artistic direction.

“I wanted to get away from making art about art, and make it about something that was real to me based on everyday things,” she said.

“Every object has got artistic merit. I’m interested in folk art and outsider art and art that’s not mainstream. I’m interested in that avenue and presenting simplified versions of things.

“It’s something I’ll continue exploring in a bigger way.”

A Catalogue of Feelings will launch at 2pm tomorrow, Saturday 7 September at Kank Wolverang Records, featuring live music from duo Gumby and Hoff, and Kristine Allan. The exhibition will run until 28 September.