Neah Kelly

In Conversation, 2017
intaglio prints, two hand dyed/felt sculptures, handstitched, thread
48 x 24 x 36 in.

My artwork is foremost a series of investigations on form and how the mechanics of spatial tensions, colour, mark making, materiality, scale and their relationships to each other unfold and inform my process. I am interested in a purely imaginative exercise where the minimal shapes that I am using come about through intuitive preference, chance and imagination. Play, the repetitive act of making, as well as the ensuing absurdity and chaos that unfold from the adherence to rules are a motivating curiosity in my work. What happens when we continually deconstruct one element over and over again? It becomes a cyclical process, an act of abstraction, a way to infuse an action with intent, while removing an ordered interpretation that focuses on the objects of process. Though these actions are linear, the process becomes abstracted, becoming an absurd act that leads towards an absurd object, eventually expanding into a visual form of abstract thought. Rather, my process exists in order to produce objects that function as a visual lineage of thought. All these ensuing permutations, manifestations, objects, pieces, works are indicative of this process, they are not the story in and of themselves. Together they form the story, which is one of complexity, nonsense, playfulness and the chaos that comes from creativity.

© Neah Kelly