Everyone would have different feelings towards nostalgia or “walking down memory lane”. Some people would have warm feelings, others might have not-so-positive memories and others might just avoid walking down that path completely.
For Ellen Jaye Benson, her exhibition A Survey of Art Practice which was on show at Project Contemporary Art Space from March 27 until last Sunday (April 7) had a variety of artworks across all sorts of mediums, which spanned almost fifteen years, was necessary and important to her to help her evolve as an artist, especially as she is about to begin teaching art at high schools.
“I wanted to see the flaws and the strengths in my practice, to help me evolve and to see where there might be some gaps for my students as well as in my own practice.”
The exhibition included pieces that used different material such as ink on rag paper, gelatine plate print—acrylic on canvas, car accident debris, electrical tape and cable, fabric, plastic and photographs. The subject matter was also varied with drawings from Benson’s own life such as specific clothing, as well as photographs of her partner and daughter, which are “previews” to her future work as well as landscapes of local Wollongong. Benson described her exhibition as autobiographical.
“It is autobiographical, but in a metaphorical sort of way. The landscapes are obviously of local Wollongong but to me they mean more than just place, it’s more of a connection to place and there are probably memories that go with that place that I wouldn’t reveal in those works and hence why I didn’t use figures in the works.”
As an artist, Benson describes herself as a “rule breaker” who found her voice as well as her methodology—the methodology that was on show for all to see, as an artist through experimenting.
“I found my voice through a lot of experiments. Experiments form the way that I work and chance discovery is also a big part of it. I don’t stick to the script, there are some rules in art like ‘one third is better than a half’, there are always unspoken rules. I often like to break rules and do things that I shouldn’t do and I like to see what happens.
“I’m not the only person that has done that with their own process, artists find their way by experimenting and pushing the boundaries.”
Despite the exhibition being a survey of practice of about fifteen years of her individual work, Benson also emphasises the importance of collaborating with and learning from other artists. She recently collaborated with Alvaro Sanchez on Artists’ Chess where they emailed each other images they created and created more images in response. This went on for six months.
“I created an image first that was a self portrait overlayed with film noir and smashed glass. I’d email Alvaro and he’d overlay some iconography that he thought would go with that image. We just swung the pendulum back and forth and different little ideas and narratives would happen. It was like a game of chess and we were trying to outdo or out-strategise each other or try to anticipate each other’s next move.”
Of course, every artist has to face critics, but more often than not, an artist’s biggest or worst critic can be their own. Benson believes that being your own worst critic can be a professional advantage for artists.
“I think if you’re not your own worst critic, you’re probably in the wrong profession in that, you constantly need to be driving and pushing yourself. If you’re happy with a work, usually there is something wrong with it. If you feel really content and think that you’re ‘just wonderful’, than there would be no challenges for you.”
Benson plans to take what she has learnt in her years as an artist to teach high school students and to host artists’ workshops.
Image taken by Rachel Loveday.
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