Kristy Milliken is about to sock it to everyone that tenderly holds on to stereotypes about beauty, femininity and perfection. Her new exhibition "A Life Slowed Down for the Observer" is a meditation on big bodies, everyday life and the happy accidents of inky mediums.
What's the title of this exhibition and how did it evolve?
'A life slowed down for the observer'. Everyone now days moves so fast, the way we communicate, shop, our tiny attention spans. Everyone's looking to be something, someone bigger and better, more than who's looking back at them in the mirror. Everyones expectations are so high, there is grace in taking yourself out of the equation becoming an observer rather than a participant, not that i'm going there.
How are you wanting to present the bigger woman here? On the one hand words like "greed" and "excess" are bandied around, but looking at the works, they are gentle and beautiful.
We see skinny women everywhere. I always forced "flaws" into any of the skinny women I painted, the bigger ladies are what they evolved into. Something far more interesting, of course different pieces have different intent behind them, but there's a naivety to them. An unaffectedness that I aspire to in my own life. I draw them as beautiful because I think they are.
There are definitely heavy politics at play when you start to depict overweight women. What is your take on this?
Since when did skinny women and birds become the norm in art?
Who are some of your favourite women in the public eye that break some of the feminine stereotypes?
It's only when you see one do you realise how few funny and smart women there are in the public eye. I love Tina Fey. Fittingly, Beth Ditto is amazing too, she has many colourful angles, not only is she bigger (and what decent bands around actually have anyone bigger than a size 12), she's gay and she's loud. It seems the only acceptable way to be a gay women in the media is to look vanilla gay (Ruby Rose) or a non threatening Florida gay (Ellen Degeneres). I do like Beth Ditto's balls.
It is really nice to see loose, painterly work like this. Why do you think there has been a strong return to painting of late?
It's exciting, there is an element of unpredictability about paint. There are so many ways of controlling an image these days, its nice to throw away any control and let the mistakes take you where you'd rather not go.
What's are the challenges of painting in inks like this?
They dry so quickly, you cant just paint over them, you either work with the mistakes and see where they go or scrap it and start from scratch. I love the challenge of seeing where an absent minded mistake will take a piece. I remember reading Anthony Listers reasoning behind his diptychs was to see if he could replicate the same mistakes again. He's got the right idea.
What's the soundtrack to this exhibition?
XTC
What's in your bag at the moment?
Gas money for Sydney.
‘A life slowed down for the observer’
Artwork by Kristy Milliken
24 Chard Road
Brookvale
Sydney
Opening Night: Friday 7th May 2010
Exhibition is open from 8th May until 11th June 2010