 |
| BONUS CARD - Kent Wilson and Lucy James, with their work at Craft Victoria |
BONUS CARD is the collaborative partnership of husband and wife artist-duo Kent Wilson and Lucy James. Exploring ideas of primitivism, tribalism and ceremony BONUS CARD weaves the contemporary and the archaic into mashed analogue interference. With equal parts contempt and respect for materials, tradition and privilege, BONUS CARD forges pseudo-cultural icons from mixed media and ambiguous intent. The blurry territories of the fetish and the sacred overlay in ritualised material outcomes for the discernment of curious minds.
 |
| BONUS CARD, Loom of the Land, 2014 |
Both Kent Wilson and Lucy James are well established as artists individually. They began to formally work together for their first BONUS CARD collaboration exhibition in January 2104 at Craft Victoria in Melbourne. Now they also have an exhibition scheduled for September 2015 at the La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre in Bendigo.
 |
| BONUS CARD, Loom of the Land, 2014 |
Kent explores the human relationship to nature, commonly with the use of living plants in his sculptures and installations. An artist with a keen interest in the networked nature of art and the arts industry, he exhibits regularly and frequently. Kent was most recently a Linden Prize finalist (2014), an Incinerator Art Award finalist (2014) and exhibited in Faux Musuem, curated by Mel Loughnan. Kent has been a gallery director, gallery co-director, curatorial advisor and member of funding panel review panels for local government arts organisations. He has been a tutor in Art Theory at Monash University, lecturer in Studio Art Practice at Continuing Education in Castlemaine and speaks publically at exhibition launches and professional practice seminars. He runs the arts website the submachine and was most recently published in Artist Profile magazine. Kent has a PhD in Fine Art (Studio Research) from Monash University, a Bachelor of Commerce degree, and currently works as Assistant Curator for City of Boroondara at Town Hall Gallery, Hawthorn. More info www.kentwilson.tumblr.com
 |
| BONUS CARD, Loom of the Land, 2014 |
Lucy is armed with a medical scalpel and a keen eye! An independent artist and illustrator, Lucy harvests images from discarded and forgotten books and transforming them into carefully composed hybrids of form and meaning. Working with collage, painting and drawing, her work touches on issues of inherited folklore, the commodification of pets and the exploitation of natural resources. Lucy has studied Visual Arts, Fashion and Textiles and holds an Honours degree in Fine Art. Since then, she has exhibited nationally and internationally, and has artwork housed in private collections throughout Australia, Japan, the UK and the USA. Lucy has recently been a contributor for inaugural publications Cat People magazine and the Key of Sea journal. She is also co-founder of jewellery label Anna Davern + Lucy James. Their current collection is available exclusively online at Craft Collector. More info www.lucyjames.net
 |
| BONUS CARD, Loom of the Land, 2014 |
"This residency at Gunyah offers us an opportunity to prepare and finalise aspects for our upcoming exhibition, in a venue away from our normal distractions and inspired by the natural beauty of the area. We work with stone and wood, so would be engaging with local materials, and are inspired by the human connection to nature, so feel this opportunity would allow us to immerse ourselves in the environment. We'll have a young child with us - so this would also be a terrific chance for us to all work and be together in the one place, without the normal day-to-day complications of juggling careers, art practice and family life."
