Maxxi Minaxi May | Tarting the Tartan | 2019 | 622mm x 622mm x 56mm (framed) | Washi tape (paper), glue and epoxy resin on board| Pattern Clasher (solo), Art collective WA
I am a multidisciplinary artist predominantly working with sculpture, mixed media, print and installation. By interconnecting representation, consumerism, and mediated culture, I remix perspectives of the Anthropocene, moving towards a more Symbiocene standpoint that is optimistic and harmonious. Themes related to the industrial, the everyday and the environment are frequently embodied through or by objects or collected materials that typify a Zakka (the savvy in the ordinary) aesthetic. Process and materiality are integral to my work. My art has a slick minimal or a decorative maximal quality, details resulting from repetitive action, components and patterns. Colour, play, humour, duplication, objects, craft, design, childlike nostalgia, humour and juxtaposition are often seen in her works.
Maxxi Minaxi May | Flower Patch – Morris, Ashley, Broadhurst, Marimekko | 2019 | 317mm x 317mm x 20mm (framed) | Washi tape (paper), glue and epoxy resin on board | Pattern Clasher (solo), Art collective WA
I am a pattern clasher. Mixing up designs in my clothing, my penchant is for the decorative. Combining collected boards, previous artworks and found objects with weaving, wrapping and decoupage, these works are quotidian, ornamental weavings – hinting at Maximalist, Zakka, and Expanded Painting theories.
This body of work (for Pattern Clasher) continued my research into Zakka art – a Japanese term, explaining when mundane ‘things’ are elevated, selected or used to improve lifestyle – both the ornate and functional. Washi tape is an example of this. Japanese masking tape, traditionally organic materials with glue, imprinted with varied colours, patterns, symbols and pictures, has become a staple of hobby-craft – a Western commodity widely used for DIY embellishment.
In the Pattern Clasher exhibition, masking tape is elevated from a media of ‘masking-off’ to become the actual ‘paint’ surface. Through these materials, I engaged with my affinity for stickers, stationery, global fashions, and fads that permeate culture. Materials such as Washi tape hybridise and augment popular cultural artefacts.
