Review: Gabbee Stolp Deceased Estate
– February 14, 2011
Sunday night was another bustling opening at Red Wall Gallery. Gabbee Stolp has been working on a series of work exploring a subject she faces everyday at work and in the media – death.
Gabbee works as a nurse at an old persons home so of course comes into contact with the recently deceased from time to time which, from my experience, is a very eerie feeling especially the first time. Humanity has developed a phobia of death over time, dead birds and mammals are picked up with gloved hands and people gasp when we suggest that we work with the dead as a job. This is sad, in death there can be beauty along side the grief and feeling of loss that goes hand in hand. Death like all other things is a part of life and shouldn’t be buried in our minds but brought out into the open to ponder. As Gabbee has portrayed in her collection of jewellery, wall mounts and broaches currently hanging at Red Wall, death can be beautiful and intriguing. Of course at first our mind drifts to the fact that these were once living, that they had a story to tell – but what was it?
The blackbirds in their dignified poses mounted on gold make them look almost regal – perhaps it was a prince or a noble of the flock. Well never know. As spectators we have a whole life to envisage – and such an expansive one, where has this bird been? What have these feet scratched into? What wind did these wings fly with? The train of thought that can accompany a body of work that not only looks magnificent in and of its self design and aesthetic wise – but incorporates a life. A subject that we all know is endless and can have any number of endings. I wonder what the birds would think if they knew they would live forever in a infinite number of guises as we gaze and imagine what they got up to.
The selection of work was hung by Gabbee herself she did a great job with the space, centring the pieces on the maroon section which really made the gold pop out, it also left more space to stand back and chat about the work with the crowd that showed up on opening night. I encourage everyone to get to Red Wall this month to see what Gabbe has been working on [located at the Republic Bar in North Hobart]. I await Gabbees next creations – her desk is already looking very intriguing!
I have the pleasure to know Gabbee, so i took the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her work and how it came to be. Enjoy reading the conversation below along with some photos Martin Nester took of the opening! Until the next gig i get to that warrants a post – adieu!
-Jonny!
p.s. Remember that the exhibition will be up until Friday 4th of March so make sure you get along and have a peek!
Jonny: Which of the piece is your favourite – or you feel most attached to – and why if you can explain?
Gabbee: “It’s hard for me to choose a favourite as all the pieces have stories and personal attachments considering where they came from, who may have found them for me, and whatever may have been going through my head as i made them.
Aesthetically though, my favourites are the blackbirds. I intentionally set both the blackbirds in poses where they looked still and looked dead like fragile vulnerable things you can hold in your hands, and their bright glass eyes i like, like a shining glimmer of what they were before they breathed their last breath and fell to the ground. The name of those pieces ‘i’ll shut mine eyes to keep you in’ is a line out of a romantic renaissance poem (as are most of my titles) that i think says something about the emotion of grieving a lost love and the desire to hold on to something that is actually gone.”
Jonny: Does your work life influence the pieces you make – are there any personal stories in the pieces perhaps?
Gabbee: “I do face the reality and emotion of death at work at times, and i learnt from an early stage in my training that the bodies of the deceased, whilst they may no longer contain that essence or ‘soul’ or being that made that person, the body is still a sacred thing and something to be treated with respect, reverence and tenderness. Because that vessel, above all things, is something that was loved.
My mother died two years ago and i had the most incredible privilege of being with her at that moment. She died at my parents house after many years of illness, on the day before my 25th birthday. Her body stayed in the bed in my parents room that night and i slept in the room down the hall. On the morning of my birthday i went to her bedside and i spent time alone with her body. I guess for most people that would be too traumatic . But that opportunity to be alone with the vessel that bore the life of someone i had loved so deeply and who had created my own life, impacted my life and thus my art in a way that it has since been about me paying homage to that thing which we call ‘life’ and that reality which we call ‘death’. I find in a way i am lucky that i have been so openly exposed to this reality (i saw my grandmother die when i was a teenager also, as well as the many elderly people at my work) and i want to share this with people. And provoke them to think of it in a way other than what most humans are conditioned to. Death isn’t always scary or painful or wrought with fear. It can be peaceful. It can be an end to a long suffering. It can be a culmination of a life time worth of love. ”
Jonny: Where do you source your dead bits?
Gabbee: “As to the question of sourcing dead bits. I’m a vegetarian. I don’t eat things that have been killed for a whole bunch of philosophical reasons that you probably don’t need to hear about. But the important point i guess is that i will also not kill anything for the sake of art. Animals and bones
are generally kindly found and collected by many generous friends, relatives and acquaintances who know what i do and have learned to hold their breaths and stomachs to gather things up and hold them in their freezers for me until i have time to use them (or transfer them to my freezer). Bones are also often kindly donated by meat eating friends after dinner.”
