Kylie Stillman’s artistic career spans a remarkable 20 years. In her first solo exhibition at Town Hall Gallery, the artist presents highlights from her existing practice alongside new sculptural works.
Drawing on the sewing and garment construction skills she learnt at a young age, Stillman’s practice explores what it means to show three-dimensional forms on a two-dimensional plane. Making use of overlooked and discarded objects, Stillman presents everyday materials such as sheets of plywood, aluminium window furnishings, furniture and books, reworking them by hand to prompt new interpretations and meaning.
At the heart of Not fully or properly either of two things is a consideration of the nature of things and how we construct and articulate the world around us.
Not fully or properly either of two things is a solo exhibition by artist Kylie Stillman on display at Town Hall Gallery Saturday 11 July to Sunday 31 August 2020.
Installation photography by Christian Capurro.
Not fully or properly either of two things is Kylie Stillman’s latest solo exhibition on display at Town Hall Gallery, featuring highlights from her 20-year artistic career, alongside new sculptural works and sewn paper drawings.
The artist is best known for carving negative space into everyday objects, transforming books and stacks of wood into beautiful works of art.
The title for the exhibition came from one definition for the phrase ‘betwixt and between’: to be in a midway position; neither here nor there; and not definitely belonging to any of several possibilities.
On display are some of the artist’s earliest ‘invented landscapes’ and new sewn paper drawings that further her exploration of the relationship between trees and mark making.
Stillman says her work is about ‘capturing life in a static form.’ The artist sources dynamic patterns and complex structures from science, art and nature.
Kylie STILLMAN, Scape (2017), hand-cut plywood, 200 x 240 x 30cm. Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Exploring the ways that humans engage with nature in urban environments, Stillman’s Scape (2018) is a free standing slither of an imagined landscape that has been captured and placed inside the gallery.
Exploring the ways that humans engage with nature in urban environments, Stillman’s Scape (2018) is a free standing slither of an imagined landscape that has been captured and placed inside the gallery.
In her signature style, the forms of tree trunks and branches have been carved into a free-standing stack of more than 200 hand-cut plywood panels. Removed through deliberate and laborious gestures with a jigsaw, the negative space created in the block of plywood sheets becomes a shadow that illuminates the filigreed shapes and textures of the forest.
This minimalist stack of raw materials is a prompt to consider the origins of the materials used to assemble our constructed world.
Stillman frames everyday materials through layers of contrast: light and shadow, presence and absence, nature and artifice, asking us to examine the individual parts that make up the whole.
Kylie STILLMAN, Park Views (2003), Hand-laced Venetian blinds, 4 blinds: 180 x 95 cm each. Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Park Views (2003) was created shortly after Stillman graduated from art school and was living in Surrey Hills. The installation features four venetian blinds that have been penetrated with thousands of tiny drilled holes, depicting an invented landscape or ‘park view’.
Park Views (2003) was created shortly after Stillman graduated from art school and was living in Surrey Hills. The installation features four venetian blinds that have been penetrated with thousands of tiny drilled holes, depicting an invented landscape or ‘park view’.
The artist sourced and altered discarded window furnishings, including the venetian blinds that were similar to those she had in her childhood family home. ‘I felt I knew the materials quite intimately,’ she says.
Stillman drew up the ‘imagined scene,’ creating stipple stencils to centre punch, then drilled and de-burred each of the tens of thousands of individual holes.
Suspended from the gallery ceiling, dramatic light passes through each puncture to illuminate a view of a fictional parkland, its shadow landing on the surrounding walls and floor.
Portrait of artist Kylie Stillman.
Kylie STILLMAN, Verso (2020), hand-cut paperback books, five timber boxes approx. 80 x 50 x 20 cm each. Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Verso (2020) is the newest work presented in Not fully or properly either of two things, created from over 200 books sourced from the Boroondara Library Service’s deaccessioned book collection displayed within five white timber boxes.
Verso (2020) is the newest work presented in Not fully or properly either of two things, created from over 200 books sourced from the Boroondara Library Service’s deaccessioned book collection displayed within five white timber boxes.
For the spine side of the books, Stillman has applied the method she observed from the library staff, where they scribbled out the barcode of the retired books. The artist has applied this method to the titles, using a permanent marker to isolate words that relate to nature and to life, including air, dust, melt, mother, robin, alien and hill.
For the page side, the artist has hand-carved flocks of stencilled birds which fly in a singular migratory direction across the stack, each bird illuminated by the dramatic lighting.
Drawn to the pre-existing features and dimensions of the found object, Stillman uses a scalpel to extricate shapes of birds and trees from their pages.
Stillman uses everyday objects and found materials as more meaningful alternatives to traditional pigments and ‘made to size’ canvases
The artist often depicts ‘signs of life’ into the pages of books she has sourced from opshops and deaccessioned library collections.
Oscillating between highly physical, broad, carved strokes and intricately focused, fine needle pricks, negative space is often the mechanism Stillman uses to depict her subjects.
Kylie STILLMAN, Know your IQ (2016), Hand-stitched book, 15 x 12 x 19 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
For Morning Pages (2016), the artist created a series of embroidered book works with a patterned or structural component sewn into the covers.
For Morning Pages (2016), the artist created a series of embroidered book works with a patterned or structural component sewn into the covers.
Kylie STILLMAN, Armageddon (2016), Hand-stitched book, 15 x 12 x 19 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Each of the non-fiction paperbacks sits atop a music stand, displayed with the covers open to allow the viewer to see both the neat, pattern side and the messy ‘working’ side.
Each of the non-fiction paperbacks sits atop a music stand, displayed with the covers open to allow the viewer to see both the neat, pattern side and the messy ‘working’ side.
Kylie STILLMAN, Supernature (2016), Hand-stitched book, 15 x 12 x 19 cm. Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Stillman explores the intricate patterns, aesthetic forms and complex systems of the natural and constructed world, including the shapes of hexagonal webbing, fractal branching and wave patterns.
Stillman explores the intricate patterns, aesthetic forms and complex systems of the natural and constructed world, including the shapes of hexagonal webbing, fractal branching and wave patterns.
Negative space is also an element of the thread works on paper. She says, ‘I may be adding in those instances (thread and beads) but the marks suggest an absence, and the spaces between articulates the form that’s not there.’
Kylie STILLMAN, Colour Management (2020), Hand-stitched work on paper, 76 x 56 cm (90 x 70 cm framed). Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
This work was produced by using the fluid and spontaneous mark of a pencil on paper, rubbed across three overlaid discs which create a Venn diagram. The pencil mark has been upscaled and rendered in a soft grey stitched thread, which transforms into each of the primary colours as it passes over the forms of three discs.
This work was produced by using the fluid and spontaneous mark of a pencil on paper, rubbed across three overlaid discs which create a Venn diagram. The pencil mark has been upscaled and rendered in a soft grey stitched thread, which transforms into each of the primary colours as it passes over the forms of three discs.
A small series of beautiful and delicate hand-sewn paper works are the newest iterations of Stillman’s musing upon trees and mark making. She says, ‘I enjoy arguing that these ‘drawings' are in fact sculptures, just extremely thin ones!’
Kylie STILLMAN, detail from Growth Rings (2019), Hand-beaded work on paper, 76 x 56 cm (90 x 70 cm framed). Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
The artist applies intricate needlework, thread and beading to depict patterns and systems found in nature, maths and philosophy. Growth Rings (2019) captures a dynamic circular scribble and bark rubbing through fine, beaded embroidery, and is named after the visual representation of the growth story of a tree.
The artist applies intricate needlework, thread and beading to depict patterns and systems found in nature, maths and philosophy. Growth Rings (2019) captures a dynamic circular scribble and bark rubbing through fine, beaded embroidery, and is named after the visual representation of the growth story of a tree.
Kylie STILLMAN, detail from Starburst Folia (2019), Hand-stitched work on paper, 76 x 56 cm (90 x 70 cm framed). Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Stillman enjoys playing with the fluidity of the line, but doing it with materials that are not very fluid or flexible.
Stillman enjoys playing with the fluidity of the line, but doing it with materials that are not very fluid or flexible.
The sewn paper drawings are strongly linked to the other pieces in the exhibition, reflecting the artist’s ongoing interest in the relationship between trees (leaves, birds, feathers, webs, air, fractal patterns, veins) and mark making (scribbles, cuts, stitches, shadows).
Kylie STILLMAN, detail from Leaf Margin (2019), Hand-stitched work on paper, 76 x 56 cm (90 x 70 cm framed). Courtesy of the artist and Utopia Art Sydney. Photograph by Christian Capurro.
Stillman says the sewn drawings also relate to trees and mark marking. ‘They’re forming another way of working which I’ve enjoyed, working with shadows, skeletons or textual rubbings. Playing with very simple gestures, isolating them, enlarging them, and then having a new reading happen.’
Stillman says the sewn drawings also relate to trees and mark marking. ‘They’re forming another way of working which I’ve enjoyed, working with shadows, skeletons or textual rubbings. Playing with very simple gestures, isolating them, enlarging them, and then having a new reading happen.’
Installation view of Kylie STILLMAN, Crepe Myrtle (2020), commissioned window treatment for exterior of Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Artist Kylie Stillman was commissioned to create an artwork for the exterior windows of the Hawthorn Arts Centre to celebrate the opening of Not fully or properly either of two things. Using her signature stippling, gridded process, the artist has depicted cropped sections of the Crepe Myrtle trees that surround the eastern entrance to the building, capturing their skeletal and spindling, Autumnal forms.
Artist Kylie Stillman was commissioned to create an artwork for the exterior windows of the Hawthorn Arts Centre to celebrate the opening of Not fully or properly either of two things. Using her signature stippling, gridded process, the artist has depicted cropped sections of the Crepe Myrtle trees that surround the eastern entrance to the building, capturing their skeletal and spindling, Autumnal forms.
Installation view of Kylie STILLMAN, Crepe Myrtle (2020), commissioned window treatment for exterior of Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Installation view of Kylie STILLMAN, Crepe Myrtle (2020), commissioned window treatment for exterior of Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Installation view of Kylie STILLMAN, Crepe Myrtle (2020), commissioned window treatment for exterior of Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Installation view of Kylie STILLMAN, Crepe Myrtle (2020), commissioned window treatment for exterior of Hawthorn Arts Centre.
Installation view of Kylie STILLMAN, Crepe Myrtle (2020), commissioned window treatment for exterior of Hawthorn Arts Centre.