Click here to view ZERO series of Artworks in our ONLINE GALLERY
‘ ZERO AS A METAPHOR IS
A REFLEXIVE MATRIX OF THE
FEMALE EXPERIENCE AS A SOURCE OF POWER’
‘ ZERO AS A METAPHOR IS
A REFLEXIVE MATRIX OF THE
FEMALE EXPERIENCE AS A SOURCE OF POWER’
‘ ZERO AS A METAPHOR IS
A REFLEXIVE MATRIX OF THE
FEMALE EXPERIENCE AS A SOURCE OF POWER’
‘ ZERO AS A METAPHOR IS
A REFLEXIVE MATRIX OF THE
FEMALE EXPERIENCE AS A SOURCE OF POW
In the works presented in ZERO, the artist finds and ignites in each of her characters the ‘spark’ that lives in their vulnerable and passionate hearts. Connections between women, nature and body are Gailer’s universe: one where imaginary paradises are re-created and re-presented through the experience of being a woman. We see in these works magical and colourful brushstrokes of organic sensory worlds that are born in the fantasy and the poetics of the inner connection between mind and soul; Gailer’s quest is to infiltrate and activate this in us. These are splendid and generous worlds – powerful, exciting, feminine and exotic; worlds that are born in the metaphors of fertility and maternity as a unique feminine feeling.The artist is enamored by notions of ‘fragility’ and ‘strength’ and her artwork can be interpreted as a series of confronting tensions to articulate the essence of female existence. Gailer uses vulnerability to entice us to re-focus our eyes in order to penetrate into the potency of woman. This is the starting point of a narrative in which she connects with the reality of the every day woman as a means of revealing her metaphysical qualities. Juxtaposed, these artworks– with their vibrant colour and expressive spiritual dimension – capture Gailer´s fundamental beliefs about the location of women in the world.
In ZERO the viewer is invited to experience a series of artworks that encourages the recognition of the female identity in its constant flux. The concept of the fluidity of the female identity reveals something essentially different about women, which is the existence of her cyclic self. The truths surrounding cyclic patterns of a woman’s life can be regarded as archetypal events. A universal experience of women connects one to another regardless of their cultural or social backgrounds. The experience of the female body is but one step into the spiritual realm of woman herself; this consciousness of the body opens up the sacred place that lies beyond merely physical boundaries. And then the real dialogue can begin.Some women in the artworks are exposed as a subject in conflict. According to the sociologist Brené Brown (2010), a crisis in the self is part of a spiritual awaking. As human beings, struggling with our fears and shame is a driving force that allows us in to grow internally and connect more fully with our body. The notion of being vulnerable is an essential part of our individual journey towards a re-evaluation of our place in the world. Out of this internal battle of recognizing the power inherent in vulnerability, the spiritual self awakes. As it is here that we come to find our inner worth and acknowledge our unique dignity.
ZERO attempts to nurture the audience with feminine energy. As a painter Gailer reflects about the intimate engagement between the multiplicities of the spiritual levels. For instance a significant process in painting the works featured in ZERO is to find a balance between the figurative and the abstract as a metaphor of finding a balance between body and soul. The female body is pictured in a ceaseless flow of cosmic rhythms- enacted by colorful brushstrokes- suggesting the ambiguous female in trance looking for an experience of wholeness, her relationship to the sacred and her mysterious fluid sexuality. Colour and form dynamics in the paintings aim to reveal a kind of musicality, the female inner harmony with the cosmos in which she experiences the connection to a wholeness and thus, similar to the strange properties of the infinite zero, she is reduced to nothingness to discover the power of the spirit.
In a multilayered world, the exhibition attempts to go to the heart. Passion lives in her heart and “heart is what drive us and determine our fate” (Allende, 2008). The heart is the core and birthplace of the spiritual transcendence. It is the essential tool for women to re-connect with inner person; as well it is the center for harmonization in human relationships. This vision is evident in the artist self-portrait “Essential Flux Of The Heart”. The view of herself in a portrait that juxtapose hearts and other symbols, is an intimate gaze of her spiritual life, recreated and painted in her artistic imaginative world.
As a metaphor, ZERO is a reflexive matrix of the female experience as a source of power. Paintings portraying women- from different backgrounds- finding shape, emerging, fusing and becoming visible through the thick colorful brushstrokes are ‘powerfully proclaiming the face of women, of all women, coming into power and expression of its own’ (King, 1998, p.2). These images of power and beauty, with a sense of mystery and achievement, aim to present a positive re-evaluation of women through the investigation of the female bodily existence and its organic interconnectivity.
ZERO celebrates the connection and harmonization of wholeness’, and the infinite possibilities of our existence. The hope is that through this exploration of what it is ‘to be’ a woman, Katherine Gailer makes a connection between the tangible and intangible essential pieces of the female identity. This may re-validate in a positive way the vision of what means to be a woman. Not as an individual state, but as a collective group experience. Because we are all connected.
Gailer’s artistic project ZERO was exhibited in 2013 at:
NO VACANCY GALLERY
RMIT School Of Art Gallery.
RAW Melbourne: MOSAIC
• VIDEO: RAW Melbourne Interview
• SBS Radio / Spanish ~ ENTREVISTA EN ESPAÑOL acerca de ZERO:
PHOTO DOCUMENTATION
ZERO at No Vacancy Gallery
Opening Night at NO VACANCY!
ZERO at the RMIT School Of Art Gallery
Opening night at the RMIT School Of Art Gallery
Katherine with Lucy and Sasha
Two of the characters portrayed in ZERO
Kathleen Gonzales performance Piece at the Opening night!
Beautiful Kathleen in front her Portrait: The Nurturer
Beautiful Duaa in front of her portrait: The Power Of Vulnerability
Amazing Shaney in front of her portrait: Penetrating Faith
Sydney Smith, with Katherine, in front of her painted portrait: Butterfly Effect
Beautiful Naty Alessi in front of her painted portrait: Dichotomy Of Fear
Ee’da delivering her amazing Spoken Word at ZERO+
