Irene Barberis (Australia)

Over the past three decades I have worked with images and texts of the Apocalypse as my main area of research.

During my many periods in France and at The Cite des Arts I have poured over the figurative and abstract elements of the Apocalypse in Painting, Tapestry, Glass, Fresco, Woodcuts, Mosaics, Prints and Medieval Illuminated Manuscripts. This series’ of Glassine prints and screen printed collage, encapsulates in a minimal fashion the primary meaning of the word “ Apocalypse’, rather than works normally associated with the Apocalypse; the dense horrific images of a world gone mad through the base and vile nature of humanity and the satanic forces behind their actions strategizing the destruction of these fragile puppets, and the earth. The actual Biblical meaning of the word ‘Apocalypse is ‘an unveiling’, a ‘revealing’ of Jesus Christ, and then subsequent to this the tumultuous period of time which leads up to Christs second coming and the revelation of all things at the end of the Age.

The images in the three works are gleaned from the figurations found in French and English medieval manuscripts and Apocalypse tapestry. Of course the medieval language of the Apocalypse flowed through all the eight forms of expression mentioned above, with gestures, stance and landscape familiar in all the iconography, however the images in these printed fragments are particular to the French illuminations and tapestry.

Paris, especially at the Cite des Artes has afforded me so many wonderful memories and long periods of sustained work in my practice that I guess if I ever thought of relocating it would have to be to Paris, where one can sink into ultra rich history or fly still with ones feet on the ground into the future.

Amie Oliver / Virginia, USA

above: collaborative work with Iranian master calligrapher Jamshid Mardan
below: Heaven, Earth and Sea Series (River walk) 2011
ink on synthetic paper
32 x 44 inches
2011

As a hill walker and traveler, journals and agendas are an essential aspect of my creative process. My work catalogs the passing of time and experience, and possesses an inherent motion. I like to think of it as a mobile museum/library, which I could take on my bicycle, or float down the Seine if I wanted to - a message in - and sometimes without - a bottle. Weather, wind and rain aside, the journey prevails. Paper is the ideal material for my process: synthetic, organic, or handmade, it is timeless, honest and most of all, personal as clothing. It travels well.

The Heaven, Earth and Sea series began during 2009 in Tibet. The Metasenta Moving Cultures Project resulted in work on paper that skirts with western tradition and its illusions of permanence, place or time. As small as the world seems, the sky is vast. These paintings attempt to bridge the great divide between the east and west, north and south, light and dark. During a Paris residency earlier this year the city was nearly brought to its knees by an eight month drought. I returned home to witness the fires in Texas on all media outlets. I dream of the water table, paint its residue and am caught in the pattern of its floods and tides. It is the source of life and my element.

Ink, in its many forms is the primary vehicle for this body of work. It can be as opaque or transparent as black ice or a spring rain. It reveals the history of a surface as it is stubborn in its permanence. It can be scrubbed, inscribed or as fluid as watercolor and is a material I’ve known since I first scribbled in my parents’ books with a Bic pen. More common than graphite and still, perhaps, the most permanent record of our time. I love it.

Michael Pinsky (Great Britain)

Michael Pinsky is a renowned British artist whose international projects have created innovative and challenging works in galleries and public spaces. He has undertaken many residencies that explore issues which shape and influence the use of our public realm. Taking the combined roles of artist, urban planner, activist, researcher, and resident, he starts residencies and commissions without a specified agenda, working with local people and resources, allowing the physical, social and political environment to define his working methodology.

He has exhibited extensively in galleries and festivals such as TATE Britain, the Saatchi Gallery, the ICA, London; BALTIC, Gateshead; Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Modern Art Oxford, Milton Keynes Gallery, Cornerhouse, Manchester; Liverpool Biennial, Archilab, Orleans; CCC, Tours; France, Armory Center of the Arts, Los Angeles and the Rotterdam International Architectural Biennial.

Dr Michael Pinsky graduated from the Royal College of Art. He has received numerous awards from the RSA, Arts Council England, Arts and Business, the Wellcome Trust and his exhibition Pontis was shortlisted for the prestigious Gulbenkian Museums Award.

Marinda Du Toit / South Africa

Marinda Du Toit's  recent residencies in Paris and Belgium resulted in a sequential visual journal of her time away from her native South Africa. Her work is a collage of her experiences as an artist and educator who studied music and language at the University of Pretoria in Gauteng, South Africa and as a teacher at private schools and Universities. Her professional practice includes performance and art productions at festivals, group and solo exhibitions and two award winning animated films of her sculpture; and well as the score for the film's soundtrack. Her films were named  Best Children's Film in the Ukraine) and Best Short Film in South Africa. Her films have also been shown in Teheran and have been distributed in Canada. Du Toit's experience in composition spans film, performance and television.

Click on these links to view Marinda's video work.