Installation

She Does (working title) /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

She Does (working title)

Installation, 2023

2 Dec 2023 to 18 Feb 2024
Noosa Regional Gallery 

Installation, video, furniture 2023
Artist Kellie O’Dempsey

Videographer: Jorge Serra
Sound: Mick Dick
Movement Consultant: Ruby Donohoe
Photographer: Warwick Gow

She Does (working title) gives visual form to the memory and experience of the liminal space between dying and death. In caring for someone exiting this life, Kellie O’Dempsey felt like they were a caretaker of memories; and the objects—cupboards, boxes, antiquities and personal effects—wherein these memories are infused. She Does (working title) uses these objects to explore the complex fragility, intimacy, exhaustion and boredom of this temporal space, when one is confronted with their own mortality via the death of a parent. Drawing on installation, performance and video, O’Dempsey ritualises care and nurtures relationality to quietly honour women’s unseen labour and question the value of care in a society that values capital.

Noosa Regional Gallery Director Michael Brennan

Kellie O'Dempsey is renowned for an installation practice that integrates projection, video, collage, architectural space, gestural line, performance and digital drawing. She Does draws together various aspects of this way of working to sensitively explore the gravity and responsibility of caring for the life and memory of another – particularly one who was once responsible for caring for you.

The development of She Does (Working Title) was supported by RADF (Regional Arts Development Fund) & the Sunshine Coast Council   

Wish You Were Here /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here

Jan Manton Gallery
3 - 28 October, 2023


Jan Manton Gallery exhibition link

Essay by Dr Louise R Mayhew

Jan Manton Gallery is pleased to present Kellie O'Dempsey's debut commercial exhibition Wish You Were Here on show between 3 - 28 October 2023. Wish You Were Here is an immersive installation of collaged works using paper, drawing, tape and video that transports the viewer into an uncertain landscape. Begun throughout the early days of the pandemic, worked and refined in 2023 during post-covid living, Wish You Were Here  began as a response to lockdowns and has continued to develop with transforming elements of humour and oddity.

In this site-specific installation, uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together as we all fumble for connection. Through repetitive rhythm, monotonous loops, neon lights, remnants of billboard posters, collaged objects and an unspecified time, Wish You Were Here blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve.

Wish You Were Here is an ongoing project and has previously been exhibited at: Redlands Art Gallery, Cleveland; Northsite Contemporary Art Space, Cairns; Outer Space; Brisbane and Bundaberg Regional Gallery. It has been selected for the 2022 Queensland Regional Art Award. O’Dempsey’s other past performances and works have also been shown at: Art after Dark; Pier 2/3; 18th Biennale of Sydney; MONA FOMA, Hobart; White Night Melbourne; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; City of Brisbane’s Botanica 2019 & 2021; as well as the interactive exhibition 'The Storytellers' at the Museum of Brisbane.

The exhibition is accompanied by a soundtrack composed by Mick Dick.
Fish animated by Helena Papageorgiou.

Link to catalogue

Wish You Were Here Too (2022) /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here Too (2022)

22 July — 25 August 2022

Outerspace

Outer Face is an iteration of Outer Space’s digital projection public art program, on display across the building façade of Judith Wright Arts Centre.

Curated by Alice Rezende

Wish You Were Here Too (2022) is a reimagining of Kellie O’Dempsey’s exhibition Wish You Were Here (2021), displayed at Redland Art Gallery, Cleveland, in 2021, and NorthSite Contemporary Arts, Cairns, in 2022. In this façade-specific iteration, readymade collages constructed from billboard poster strips – which O’Dempsey has been collecting for years – appear mountain-like and menacing. Meanwhile, a rendition of ghostly silhouettes of the artist hold their balance precariously, their movements softened by a stack of echoing frames. Nearby, mechanical-like fish with giant eyeballs for bodies float by without a care in the world. Taken together, these minutely considered elements allude to O’Dempsey’s similarly complex inner world. They are reflections on the balancing act of holding space for family, which O’Dempsey has experienced as the primary carer of a sick and elderly parent: “For me, the unknowable and surreal landscape of transitioning from daughter to [the] parent of my parent is one of endurance” (1). Conscious of not falling over, O’Dempsey’s senses seem heightened to the “rocky landscape that is contemporary living,” one that she likens to an absurd abyss, or a “post-Covid treadmill” (2). Yet the artist understands the need to forge ahead into a “psychedelic continuum” (1): a rhythm beyond linear time. I imagine that for O’Dempsey, this room of one’s own, this rich euphoric world, lies very presently within.

Notes
(1) Wish You Were Here exhibition excerpt, courtesy of the artist.
(2) O’Dempsey, Kellie. ‘Re: Final video - Kellie O'Dempsey’. Email, 2022.

 

Photographer: Louis Lim

Wish You Were Here: Northsite /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here

23 APRIL — 11 JUNE 2022

Northsite Contemporary Art Space, Cairns, Queensland

NorthSite  Gallery 1


An immersive installation of collaged works using paper, projected animation, sound and Augmented Reality (AR) that transports the viewer into an uncertain landscape. 

Created throughout the early days of the pandemic in 2020 and refined in 2022 during post-covid living, Wish You Were Here began as a response to lockdowns and has continued to develop with transforming elements of humour and oddity. In this site-specific installation, uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together as we all fumble for connection. 

Through repetitive rhythm, monotonous loops, neon lights, Augmented Reality objects in non-specific locations and an unspecified time, Wish You Were Here blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve.

Sound by Mick Dick and AR by Helena Papageorgiou.

 

What did you say 2022: Orange Regional Gallery /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Artist Kellie O’Dempsey , Sound Mick Dick , AR Animations Helena Papageorgiou

Kellie O ’Dempsey’s What did you say? 
Robertson Park, Orange NSW
Thursday 20 – Sunday 30 October 2022. 

This interactive installation was a part of Orange City Council’s Future City Public Art Project. 

Microscopic pores called stomata cover the surface of leaves to exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The word ‘stomata’ comes from the Greek word ‘stoma’ meaning ‘mouth’. What did you say? reimagines a tree’s stomata as the mouth through which the planet breathes. Viewers are asked to listen and engage in deep breathing, to be present in the moment and to connect, consider and rest. Using augmented reality, projected imagery and a soundscape of breathing, the artwork responds to our strange and ever-shifting social and environmental climate. 

What did you say? is a free Future City Public Art installation funded by the NSW Government and Orange City Council.

Videographer: Madli Duff – Nomad Collective
Photography: Mitch Duff – Nomad Collective

 

What did you say? /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

What did you say?
7 May 2021 – 16 May 2021
Botanica - Contemporary Art Outside | City Botanic Gardens | Brisbane, QLD

On the epidermis of a tree's leaves, microscopic pores called stomata exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The word 'stomata' comes from the Greek word 'stoma' meaning 'mouth'. What did you say? reimagines a tree's stomata as the mouth through which the planet breathes. 

Some mouths breathe with ease; others struggle to catch their breath; a silent few are deathly still. Viewers are asked to listen and engage in deep, conscious breathing, to be present in the moment and to connect, consider and rest. 

Using augmented reality, projected imagery and a soundscape of breathing, the artwork responds to our strange and ever-shifting social and environmental climate.

Helena Papageorgiou (augmented reality), Michael Dick (sound).

Credit | Photography & Video: Thomas Oliver
Image Credits Horizon Festival

 

Wish You Were Here /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here
 

Wish You Were Here
25 Jul 2021 – 29 August 2021
Redland Gallery | Cleveland, QLD

Wish You Were Here began as a response to the lockdown life of the pandemic. Uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together to imitate how we fumble for connection. Wish You Were Here is an immersive installation of collaged works on paper, projected animation, sound and Augmented Reality (AR). Through repetitive rhythm and monotonous loops, non-specific locations and an unspecified time, this work blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve. Sound by Mick Dick and AR by Helena Papageorgiou.

 
 

Credit | Photography: Louis Lim

Credit | Video: Jasmine Smith

 

Hardenvale - our home in Absurdia /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

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Hardenvale - our home in Absurdia
Rayner Hoff Project Space, National Art School | NSW, Australia
28 March - 20 April 2019
Kellie O’Dempsey, Catherine O’Donnell and Todd Fuller 
Funded by Australia Council for the Arts, with support from Create NSW, The NSW Artists’ Grant (NAVA)
Also supported by the Parramatta Artist Studios and Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence program

Hardenvale – our home in Absurdia is a real-scale, immersive, house-like environment created by Australian artists Catherine O’Donnell, Kellie O’Dempsey and Todd Fuller. Through drawing, projection, built form, sound and movement, this collaborative project references the architecture of 1960s Western Sydney Government housing as well as spaces the group describe as ‘the cultural fringe of Australia’.

Crossing three generations, these artists’ re-imagine lived domestic space while expanding the practice of drawing to create an intimate and unsettling experience. Harvesting images from personal narratives of imperfect moments (both familiar and strange), Hardenvale is a humble dwelling made from drawing in which to spend, lose or find time. This installation invites visitors to reflect on their own experiences and memories of home.

Links | Catalogue

 

Credits | Images - Silversalt Photography, Peter Morgan and the National Art School // Video - Sound: Mick Dick and Cinematography: Emma Conroy

 
 
 

The never-ending line /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

 

Kellie O'Dempsey: The never-ending line, NGA Play at The National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Saturday 16 June – 28 October 2018
National Gallery of Australia | Canberra, Australia

Kellie O’Dempsey invites you into her living sketchbook, an immersive space of moving marks and dancing lines. Digital projections collide with traditional drawing in a series of dynamic and colourful experiences and creative opportunities. Contribute to the unique drawing journey as you follow the never ending line to shadow puppets, 3D drawing constructions and live animation before getting into the drawing rink for an immersive drawing experience. The never-ending line investigates drawing as a way of collaboration and transformation as it features sound elements composed by Mick Dick.

Links: NGA website
Media: SMH Article | City News Article

Exhibition

Performance

Videographer - Sixth Row

Videographer - Sixth Row

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Credits | Videographer: Sixth Row

Funded by Australia Council for the Arts, with support from Create NSW, The NSW Artists’ Grant (NAVA)
Also supported by the Parramatta Artist Studios and Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence program

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