Frescoes Assay

Frescoes Assay continued my experimentation with the materiality of plaster. The walls of aGOG (Australian Girls Own Gallery), which was once a shop, were hung – salon style – with colourful plaster objects. These included shelves with objects cast into plastic bags; plaster poured over boxes of chalk; blocks of plaster embedded with shells and light bulbs; sticks dipped in colourful plaster; green dyed sponges embedded in plaster.

Plaster is an inherently transformational material, changing in form from liquid to solid, generating heat as it hardens, with a centrifugal force drawing embedded colours to the surface. The intensity of these colours varies depending on the humidity of the surrounding air. The process of working with it is messy, playful and exploratory.

The objects were made during a residency in the Painting Department at the Canberra School of Art.

Frescoes Assay was exhibited at aGOG (Australian Girls Own Gallery), Canberra in 1994.