In this work Marlyne Jackson’s vibrant explorations of memory and the domestic take another turn. The distinctly floral appearance of her creations in works such as ‘Spring’ Artstation (2004) and ‘A little bit of what you fancy does you good’ Lopdell House Gallery (2005), has shifted to become an amoeba-like world of pattern and colour that the artist likens to viewing organisms under the microscope. The spontaneous impulse of nature which enables a garden to bloom is this time captured at an infinitesimal level.
Further, Jackson’s point of entry, the meditative place ‘where ideas can be planted and grow from’, is now the gallery wall. From this ‘blank canvas’ her forms sprout and develop in painterly fashion, irrepressibly taking on their own life. However, if this seems like a return to the modernist principle of the gallery as neutral and sacred space, domestic decoration, bold fluorescent colours, the cheap and the homely remain the artist’s passion and she continues to take to the white cube with feminine fervour. Things readymade receive an intensive craft treatment, one that clearly flourishes in a ‘post’ environment.
It is this intensity of her making that gives meaning and life to her work. With materials found, bought and re-assembled Jackson knits, stitches, pins, winds wool and wraps threads for all she is worth. Her home is crammed full of stock, only a fraction of which receives a public airing from time to time. As a collector, her hunting ground of choice is the $2 shop, augmented by visits to wool shops, the supermarket and the hardware store. These places provide her with ever-expanding ‘craft basket’ into which she continually delves.
Undoubtedly, the use of handicraft techniques infuses her making with a ‘textile-ness’ that links ‘Organism’ to te tuhi’s craft and community beginnings. It is not difficult to imagine the individual pieces taking shape over a cup of tea and a conversation, the kind of process that in many cases has led to bigger things. It was, after all, the coming together of Pakuranga’s local art society that led to the Fisher Gallery and since 2001, te tuhi – the mark. For Jackson, though, and in true folk art style, this has meant more, more and then some.
To view ‘Organism’ (and it is a visual feast) is therefore to briefly experience the artist’s creative compulsion. Is this a desire to overcome the 21st Century feminist schism around the domestic arts—a simultaneous affection and disdain? If so, Jackson clearly tackles this rift with playfulness and optimism. Her work is a balm for the soul and we accept her salve with pleasure.
- text by Michelle Osborne