Wish You Were Here /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Wish You Were Here

Jan Manton Gallery
3 - 28 October, 2023


Jan Manton Gallery exhibition link

Essay by Dr Louise R Mayhew

Jan Manton Gallery is pleased to present Kellie O'Dempsey's debut commercial exhibition Wish You Were Here on show between 3 - 28 October 2023. Wish You Were Here is an immersive installation of collaged works using paper, drawing, tape and video that transports the viewer into an uncertain landscape. Begun throughout the early days of the pandemic, worked and refined in 2023 during post-covid living, Wish You Were Here  began as a response to lockdowns and has continued to develop with transforming elements of humour and oddity.

In this site-specific installation, uncanny household objects collide with uncertain landscapes. In search of progress, multiple figures attempt to travel, yet go nowhere in this oddball world. Their figurative and abstract forms gently smash together as we all fumble for connection. Through repetitive rhythm, monotonous loops, neon lights, remnants of billboard posters, collaged objects and an unspecified time, Wish You Were Here blends the physical and the psychological for a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve.

Wish You Were Here is an ongoing project and has previously been exhibited at: Redlands Art Gallery, Cleveland; Northsite Contemporary Art Space, Cairns; Outer Space; Brisbane and Bundaberg Regional Gallery. It has been selected for the 2022 Queensland Regional Art Award. O’Dempsey’s other past performances and works have also been shown at: Art after Dark; Pier 2/3; 18th Biennale of Sydney; MONA FOMA, Hobart; White Night Melbourne; and the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; City of Brisbane’s Botanica 2019 & 2021; as well as the interactive exhibition 'The Storytellers' at the Museum of Brisbane.

The exhibition is accompanied by a soundtrack composed by Mick Dick.
Fish animated by Helena Papageorgiou.

Link to catalogue

Bloom /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Bloom

Presented by Orange Regional Gallery and Orange City Council 

Kellie O’Dempsey x Mick Dick
Large-scale public performance 

Roberstson Park, Orange, NSW
Friday 3 November 2023

Part of Orange City Council’s Future City Public Art project, Kellie O’Dempsey and Mick Dick presented light projections onto trees in the park, synchronized to the rhythm of Mick Dick’s music, during two after dark performances.

This large-scale projection performance that contemplates the transformation of blossoming flora as an act of wonder. Using light and sound, shape shifting images of illuminated colour move across existing foliage with growing lines, bold shapes and electric hues of blush, deep orange and amber. 

Bloom acted as an emotional directive drawing the audience into the public space. Slow-moving lines of light grow to a monastic sound performed live in Robertson Park. This work offered elements of ranscendental connection and celebrates the phenomena of nature as shared experience of everchanging wonderment.

This interdisciplinary performance used video projection, animation and sound. Using iPads connected via HDMI cables to and a perfectly positioned projector. Together sound artist Mick Dick, Kellie O’Dempsey will drew and animate live to an improvised soundtrack of delay and reverb that filled the park.

Photography John Daly and Cecilie Knowles
Videography John daly

Hearing Line Seeing Sound /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Hearing Line Seeing Sound

Performed at OUTBOUND Contemporary Dance x Live Art Festival, Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Kellie O’Dempsey x Mick Dick
Friday 6 October & 7 October, 2023


A live drawing and sound performance. 

A multisensory integration where simultaneously experienced sensory modalities become a single multisensory perception. Operating as a shared experience, Hearing Line Seeing Sound is a moment in Kellie and Mick’s ongoing exploration of sound and vision as a collaborative improvised performance of line and tune. Simultaneously Kellie’s line drawings of light are site generated in direct conversation with Mick’s evolving tonal audio. They attempt to enter together as they trace their location at the intersection of drawing and audio sound and vision.

OUTBOUND Contemporary Dance x Live Art Festival supported by ArtsCoast, Sunshine Coast Council, Regional Arts Development Fund Queensland

Photographer Tim Birch
Video Time Birch 
Short Video Ruby Donohoe

The Condensery /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

The Condensery

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

FEATURED IN THE BOMB SHELTER EXHIBITION SPACE

Kellie O’Dempsey was on site in August 2023 to research and develop a new body of work responding to The Condensery’s architecture and the specifics of the bomb shelter’s history. The bomb shelter was built in the 1940s as a repository for archives which was cared for by a team of female secretaries brought to Toogoolawah for that purpose.  Building on her previous work, O’Dempsey is interested in unpacking and exploring the unseen and often unrecognised caring responsibilities, in this case and in many other circumstances performed largely by women.

Kellie O’Dempsey’s residency included a performance with Mick Dick creating a stunning, dynamic and playful live work responding to the location

The Project was realised with the assistance of the REGIONAL ARTS DEVELOPMENT FUND IS A PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN THE QUEENSLAND GOVERNMENT AND SOMERSET REGIONAL COUNCIL TO SUPPORT LOCAL ARTS AND CULTURE IN REGIONAL QUEENSLAND.

 

Big Sky /  by Sai Karlen

Big Sky

Video loop
2022

Sound Mick Dick

Noosa regional Gallery
Group Show – More than the some of its parts 4 FEB TO 5 APR 2023

More than the some of its parts brings together an ambitiously scaled ensemble of works in an installation that seeks to give a unique perspective on this special place locals call home. 

Kellie’s video work Big Sky was exhibited in More than the some of its parts.

Considering the Sunshine Coast and the ever changing continuum of the wide ocean Big Sky offers us a timeless score. This video and sound work emulates the metered motion of the coastal landscape in attempt to radiate a sense of awareness and meditative calm. Through a continuous loop and hypnotic rhythm this work employs; the circle, video, colour and repetition using photographs of the beach.

As a coastal dweller I am witness to the majesty of the ever changing landscape. Magnificent colours, meteorological phenomena and masterful formations command my attention daily. The splendour of this ancient country invites an internal and external mindfulness. This work is an audio visual mantra, offering monastic bass tones and mesmerising filmic rhythms in attempt to encourage the viewer into a state of consciousness. A state that commands awareness, presence and respect.  Big Sky is a memorising reminder that we are but tiny in the cosmic substance that is Deep Time.

Kedumba Drawing Prize /  by Kellie O'Dempsey

Kedumba Drawing Award

Balancing in my Fathers Suit,

Charcoal and collage on paper, w 120 x h 735, 2023

Kedumba Gallery, Blue Mountains, NSW.

 

Balancing in my Fathers Suit was executed and exhibited in The Kedumba Drawing Award 2023. This award is an acquisitive award by invitation. The Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings is one of Australia’s most respected collections of drawing by Australian Artists. The collection includes many of the greats, including Margaret Olley, John Olsen, Elisabeth Cummings, Nora Heyson to name a few. Just as importantly, the collection also showcases some lesser known artists who are also highly skilled in drawing. The Collection has recently found a new home at the Kedumba Gallery, in the Blue Mountains.

Wish /  by Sai Karlen

Wish

Installation

In The Vault at Bundaberg Regional Gallery

April 1 to July 2

 

Kellie O'Dempsey is known for her site generated installations and performances that integrate projection, video, collage, architectural space, gestural line, performance and digital drawing.

In Wish, a reimagining of her Wish You Were Here exhibition, O'Dempsey uses The Vault to create an immersive installation of collaged works on paper, projected animation, and sound. This installation offers the viewer a moment of hypnotic but joyful reprieve, as uncanny objects collide and figures attempt to travel but go nowhere. The original exhibition Wish You Were Here was created in response to the pandemic's lockdown life, and in this reiteration, the search for connection amongst the elements of the installation is still apparent.
Sound by Mick Dick