In Which the Artist, From the Warmth of a Light Woollen Blanket, Contemplates the Mist Shrouded Mountains as a Metaphor for Love

An exhibition in progress by Penelope Aitken
Artist in Residence, National Institute for the Arts

15 - 21 May 2000

Fine Arts Department Gallery, NIA, 1 Hsueh Yuan Road, Peitou 112, Taiwan

This project was assisted by the Australian Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body.

Semi-spun mohair skeins

Stainless steel bowl, dacron, water and mist machine

Oil on board, each 7.5 x 7.5 cm

Some of the materials I used in this exhibition came from Australia others from Taiwan. The wool, or to be specific, mohair fleece, came from my grandmother who spins. It carried considerable meaning for me and was like having a security blanket around when the studio was still quite empty. I hadn't thought about linking it with the mist until I got to Taiwan however, as we don't have the same sort of atmosphere at home. After I arrived at the National Institute for the Arts, nestled as it is in the foothills of mountains, I was aware every day of the mist and the way it enveloped the buildings and silenced everything but thought. I then found that the wool looked very comfortable there, visually like the mist but warm and protective against the cold too.

The hills are shadows, and they flow
From form to form, and nothing stands;
They melt like mist, the solid lands,
Like clouds they shape themselves and go.

Tennyson, In Memoriam A.H.H., 1849