STARLIE GEIKIE
Geikie’s new body of work imagines the stylistic features, architectural layers and cultural indicators of a fictional clan; invoking the essence of this timeless unknown group through her continued investigations into the psychological potency of historical iconography.
Geikie’s series of collages, textile-based works and sculptures draw on influences ranging from armour, quilting techniques and Tudor architecture to experimental dying, Hare Krishna robes and nautical knots as well as the Abstract Expressionist paintings of Clyfford Still and textiles of Sonia Delauney.
These influences combine to emerge as forms for psychic defence against an internal or illusionary combat. Each object variously suggests crests, shields, a cape, nets and windows, signifying the conflicting desires to protect and project and to belong but also to remain isolated. The works represent boundaries and psychic barriers that allude to entrapment and enclosure, while also referring to the ways we might contain our self or conversely feel part of a group.
Geikie completed a Master of Fine Arts at RMIT, Melbourne in 2002 and has exhibited nationally and internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include If I am not, put me there; If I am, so keep me, Utopian Slumps, Art Forum Berlin, Germany, 2010; The Great Alone, Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Gippsland, 2008; Low and Lone, Canberra Contemporary Art Spaces, Canberra, 2008; Open Studio, 18th Street Arts Centre, Los Angeles, 2006 and O Mother, Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, 2002. Group exhibitions include Future Visions, curated by Caroline Kennedy McKracken, Divonne les Bains, France, 2012; Reason and Rhyme, curated by Emily Cormack, Charlotte Huddleston and Amita Kirpalani, Gertrude Contemporary, Melbourne, and St Paul St Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2011; Hutchins Art Prize, The Long Gallery, Hobart Tasmania, 2009; The Secret Life of Plants, curated by Andrew Gaynor, Linden Gallery, Melbourne and Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, 2009; Victory Over the Sun, curated by Melissa Loughnan and Helen Hughes, Utopian Slumps, Melbourne, 2009; Girls Girls Girls, curated by Nat Thomas and Lyndal Walker, Carlton Club, Melbourne, 2008; Starlie Geikie and Lauren Berkowitz, curated by Rebecca Coates, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2008; The Horror of Tradition, curated by John Souza, Andrew Shire Gallery, Los Angeles, 2008; and This is the thing I thought would never come, curated by Tony Garifalakis, Bus Gallery, Melbourne, 2006. Geikie has received grants from the Australia Council and Arts Victoria, including an Australia Council Studio Residency in Los Angeles in 2006. Her work is held in the Artbank and St Vincent’s Hospital collection, as well as various private collections in Australia and overseas.
