11. Cath Bowdler | Gridlock

The title of this show is a direct reference to the traffic situation in Manila - the huge, populous capital of the Philippines where the artist spent three months on an Asia link Residency in 2003. 

She explained that “the metaphor, traffic and its many meanings, including trade and commerce, exchange, environmental pollution and movement juxtapose notions of seduction and repulsion in this work” of hers.

“Between 1992 - 2000 one thousand people were photograph. These are three of them. Recently, I have revisited the archive and have been pulling out discrete groups of images to build new association and relationships between them. This is the first time that I have positioned the images horizontally and cropped them so closely. Without any visual clues to help us, the images are ambiguous. Are they asleep or awake, alive or dead? What are we supposed to think when we look at them? And what do we project onto their faces when they are not looking back at us?” 

Merilyn Fairskye  

Mai lives in an apartment crowded with her art. Every wall surface is hung, ceiling to floor with her paintings. The ledges and shelves are home to crowds of tiny figures, equally engaging and imbued with character. In her studio, this feeling is intensified, paintings, drawings and objects crowd in on each other in a way that is immediately overwhelming. Her paintings are only out-numbered by the piles of sketchbooks. The drawings intercede between subject and painting. But despite this optical feast, when Mai paints she is calm and works with a clarity that invites a curious and gentle inspection of the figures that populate her world. 

When we see Jesus, the Easter Bunny and a Golliwog rendered with equal reverence it is easy to think of a post-modern critique but for Mai it may be more correctly a case of cultural shoplifting. This collection of idols has been plucked from the smorgasbord of our regional deities with reference to pictorial taste rather than identified cultural or religious allegiance. In juxtaposing them, their associations are nullified - they speak as a group rather than individuals. 

These paintings have a rare blend of sincerity and humour that provides a safe haven to those willing to pause. They reflect a life lived in Australia as a citizen rather than as a member of an expatriate or migrant community, which permits Mai to render images of disparate origins and significance with equanimity.