Go, said the bird

Inari Kiuru, Steel Trees, 2015, digital media

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fortyfivedownstairs

45 Flinders Lane
Melbourne 3000

1-12 September
Tue-Fri 11am-5pm, Sat 10-4pm

Opening Tue 1 September, 5-7pm

Artist talk Sat 5 September, 12.30pm

Go, said the bird presents the work of four artists who examine the ambiguous nature of time through images, object-making and jewellery. Shaun Tan imagines urban landscapes as seen by the wild birds that continue to live there. Courtney Jackson presents souvenirs for a post-apocalyptic adventure park, a melancholy and romantic vision of a future past. For Marcos Guzman, time is inseparable from travel; Volar, Navegar and Caminar - Spanish terms for flying, sailing and walking - bring us ever closer to imagined treasures. Inari Kiuru envisions a future where man-made structures and organic elements evolve into new, strange and playful forms.

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Artists Inari Kiuru, Shaun Tan, Courtney Jackson, Marcos Guzman

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Shaun Tan, The Kingdom, 2015, oil on canvas, 1800 x 1500mm

Courtney Jackson, Winter Fade, 2014, stickpin series, bleached sterling silver

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About the Artists

Courtney Jackson is a contemporary jeweller based in Adelaide, South Australia. After completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Gold and Silversmithing) at RMIT, Courtney was accepted into the JamFactory as in associate in the Metal Design Studio. She completed the intensive two year program last year and remains there as a studio tenant. Courtney Jackson's work looks at the concept of the souvenir, and how objects are used as receptacles for memories. She's currently working on a series of souvenirs for a post-apocalyptic adventure park, exploring melancholy and romantic imaginary worlds. These relics reference an industrial landscape distorted by nature and time. Instagram: @courtneyjacksonjewellery


Marcos Guzman is an emerging artist living in Melbourne. His work is a means for remembering, vacationing, exploring, escaping; an opportunity for the realisation of something fundamental and seemingly not complex. It is about creating an ideal state of naivety through exploring and revealing colour, form and particular characteristics and ambiguities inherent within the materials of his choice. The use of narrative in the titles and statements reinforces this state of innocence. Marcos’ current work is inspired by his definitive past, possible future experiences and the little moments in between.
Marcos has participated in local and international shows including the international Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery exhibition at Gallery Funaki (Melbourne) in 2014.


Inari Kiuru works with objects, jewellery, images and installation, focusing on the hidden extraordinariness of seemingly unimportant, everyday subjects. Her current investigations include photographs of discarded matter, and mixed media pieces imagining the collision and convergence of industrial and organic forms through evolution.
Inari migrated from Finland to Australia in 1995, worked as a graphic designer, and graduated with Honours in Object Based Practice from RMIT University. She lives in Melbourne and has participated in curated group exhibitions in Australia, USA, Estonia and Germany. In 2014 she received a Judges’ Commendation for an Emerging Artist in the Mari Funaki Award for Contemporary Jewellery at Gallery Funaki, Melbourne. 
inarikiuru.blogspot.com


Shaun Tan grew up in Perth and graduated from the University of Western Australia with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works in Melbourne. He is best known as the writer and illustrator of books for young readers and the director of the Academy Award winning film The Lost Thing. Shaun is also a landscape painter with a particular focus on suburban subjects. A retrospective of this work, Suburban Odyssey, was exhibited at the Fremantle Arts Centre in 2012. 
shauntan.net