About the exhibition

Down To The Well presented twenty wood panels, each 30x30cm, featuring a well depicting by way of cutting, tearing and collaging ink drawings onto the surface.

Many of the images are of traditional, pagan Celtic ‘Clootie’ wells which were often co-opted by later religions, adding crosses over the top. Other wells are from desert regions, slums, or urban spaces. All function as an eerie, foreboding threshold: something both helpful and frightening.

The works in this exhibition, like much of my work, utilises a mindset developed from the use of layers central to both collage and traditional animation; and the compositional aims of painting. Elements are moved forward or back in pictorial space by the use of visible layer order. Down To The Well contrasted an extreme depth (wells) with a visibly flat surface (the wood panels).

Thematically, much of my early work focused on absurdist and existential questions. The works frequently utilised an apocalyptic tone whether examining societal or personal situations. There was a pronounced agnostic theme threaded through many of the works, following discussions I (an aetheist) often had with my grandfather (an Irish catholic).

In this exhibition, inspiration was taken from Toru Okada, the protagonist from Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Okada’s obsession with a dried up well transformed it into a means of transcendence, a mode of transport. It became a portal for Okada, both literal and metaphorical. Some of the works in this show included ladders permitting travel, others feature gates preventing travel.

In 2011, I was working with ink more than usual. It was the start of my obsession with ink beyond simple ink pens. I became curious about the Zen use of ink in drawing ensō circles: a circle that is hand-drawn in one or two uninhibited brushstrokes to express a moment when the mind is free to let the body create. The pared back appearance and the black circular interiors of the wells mime an inverted Zen enso circle. Where the ensō would act as a calming influence, a letting go, the works here function on heightened anxiety, attempts to ‘hold on’, and the fear of letting go.

The exhibition takes it’s name from a song of the same name by Pixies, Down To The Well. (Listen to the song here.)

Been thinking to myself and if a life’s not long
What matter does it make if there’ll be favourite songs playing in my head
When we go down to the well
—Pixies

The exhibition was held in the first year of Daine Singer’s commercial gallery, at her original Melbourne CBD location. The catalogue essay (PDF, 96kb) was written by Din Heagney.