Caitlin Reilly

The Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center Shanghai China

November 11- December 15 2009  

Suspended Arrival is a body of work on paper that is a direct response to my surroundings, daily comings and goings and a reflection of my environment both physically and emotionally. The outcome was a layering of histories and surfaces.

The evolution of Suspended Arrival has spanned more than two years, originating in my studio in Australia and taking form in 2009 in Shanghai, China. The metamorphosis of my work over this period culminated in the addition of small artist's books and two larger pieces that seemed essential in order to reinforce the original sentiment of falling.

Drawing for me is no less or more important than any other medium. It is a way in which I fill space, remember experiences and respond to this incredible world in which we live. Living in Shanghai is a continual process of merging into another culture whilst simultaneously departing from my own.

Suspended Arrival is material evidence derived from this intense, multi-layered experience of place made tangible by the simple repetitive act of drawing.

A site specific installation at The Elisabeth de Brabant Art Pavilion  1933 Shanghai China 2010

Living in downtown Shanghai there are very few spaces available where you can run, walk, skip or stand on the grass in the parked areas. In most of the parks you are not allowed to walk on the grass and if you do you are promptly instructed to get off the grass by the whistle blowing security guards. Coming from Byron Bay Australia where there is an abundance of grassed park areas that you can engage and run freely in, this restriction has often felt incredibly frustrating.  As a response to the dark history of the 1933 abattoir site and to the lack of grassed areas accessible in the inner city Shanghai area I lived in. I installed a large grassed area “The Ground Beneath Our Feet” encouraging people to engage with it and also bring a sense of aliveness to a building with such a dark history of slaughter.

April 2010 Elisabeth de Brabant Art Pavilion at 1933, 3F 10 Shajing Road, near Jiu Long Bing Guan, Hongkou Distric Shanghai, China.

Mediums: Turf /wood / sand : 5mt x 5mt Duration: 10 days

April 2010 Elisabeth de Brabant Art Pavilion at 1933, 3F 10 Shajing Road, near Jiu Long Bing Guan, Hongkou Distric Shanghai, China.

Mediums: Turf /wood / sand : 5mt x 5mt Duration: 10 days

Photograph: Kyle Fong

A site specific installation at The EDB Art Center 1933 Shanghai China 2010

Mediums: Turf /wood / sand : 5mt x 5mt Duration: 10 days

Photograph: Kyle Fong

(Press release from The Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center)

The Elisabeth de Brabant Art Center is proud to announce that from March 7 to 11 2010, artist Caitlin Reilly Chosen by the Australian Consulate and Xiao Hui Wang will be participating in the Centennial Celebration of Women in Art "World Artists" Exhibition that will take place at the Shanghai Art Museum in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the International Women's Day.

This event has been organized by the Shanghai Women's Federation in cooperation with Consular Spouses Shanghai, Shanghai Artists Association and Shanghai Female Artists Association, as well as the Shanghai Art Museum. The exhibition will be curated by Mati Cuenca from Museum of Contemporary Art.

'Suspended Arrival'

(charcoal mixed media on paper 1.5mt x 2.6mt)

 'Suspended Arrival'

(charcoal mixed media on paper 2.6mt x 1.5mt)

Xuhui Art Museum China 2011

In 2009, Artists Caitlin Reilly and Kate Stead spent a few months drawing as they looked up from where they stood in the world - Caitlin in China, Kate in Australia. The result of that visual dialectic is a book entitled 'Looking Up From The Other Side Of The World'. To share their experience of both cultural exchange and unification, they invited local schools to participate in a similar adventure and draw their own findings.

'Looking up from the other side of the world through the eyes of children' is the culmination of that project.   In Shanghai, China, the students of the Seven Color Flower Elementary School looked up and saw the tall buildings that surrounded them. The sky some days so blue, other days so grey. From their memory of looking up in the mornings, they documented in drawings people they'd seen, trees they'd observed, colors that had affected them and often, even dreams of rocket ships and rainbows they had imagined.  In the township of Maclean, N.S.W. Australia, the children looked up to the tops of nearby buildings including the  Catholic church with its sandstone bricks and stained glass windows; they saw a towering teacher who is defined by his glasses and may, or may not be wearing an argyle knit. When their art teacher, Mrs Donelan, released a bunch of balloons, they saw the magic of bright colours lighting up an otherwise dull, grey sky; and like us, they saw the ubiquitous electricity pole which seems to draw its own parallel black lines across the sky all over the world.

Xuhui Art Museum China 2011

Xuihui Art Museum China 2011

Xuhui Art Museum China 2011

A series of twelve oil paintings.

It was with delight and gratitude for the past year in Shanghai, in the surroundings of Fu Lu Cun (Village of Bliss) on Jianguo Xi Lu, inspired by my friendship with Ying from "A Day in Blossom" (Flower Salon at 3 Hunan Lu) that I journeyed into the world of colour that flowers ignite. 

These works are mementos of the passage from winter to spring, the growth and nurture of friendship, and the hope that flowers bring. 

The flowers of this time renunculas, orchids, and sometimes lilies placed in vases bought from the local markets and bric-a-brac shops for me now are preserved. These vessels, their layered history imbedded within these paintings will forever remind me of Shanghai.

觉 / JUE (pronounced joo-eh) –verb: to sense; to awaken. JUE | Music + Art is an annual open-source arts and music festival in both Shanghai and Beijing, presented by Split Works. 

An on site drawing performance utilising a minimal palette of charcoal and graphite white acrylic paint and array of tools to enhance these mediums and the mark making process. This work was created during the festival as a way to emphasize the nature of drawing as a tool for communication and collaboration.

Drawing performance and  exhibition

Caitlin Reilly with Han Xiao at Fenglin Park during the making of 'Gestural Antics'. 

Some of the works clipped to a temporary hanging device displayed at the Fenglin Park site Shanghai.

In total 30 works on paper were made and installed at the Fenglin Park site and were on display during the Jue Festival 2012.

Works on paper exhibition at 195 Anfu Lu Shanghai China  

These works contribute to a rotating art space in the hallway dividing a busy restaurant strip on Anfu Lu. These works create a dialogue of art in a public space.

Observation, urgency, layers, exposure, language, space, Chinese characters, beauty, Shanghai, reactivity, introspection, obscurity... Key elements that fuse in the 'Encrypted' series on paper, made in public during the opening night of the 2013 Jue festival. 

‘Spring’ @ 195 Anfu Lu is a site-specific installation of oil paintings.
These oil paintings are a celebration of the changing seasons conveying movement and vibrancy  Drawing inspiration from the flux and chaos of the Shanghai streets. March - May 2013

These works contribute to a rotating art space in the hallway dividing a busy restaurant strip on Anfu Lu. These works create a dialogue of art in a public space. 

A group exhibition of foreign artists living in Shanghai @ 195 Anfu Lu Shanghai December 2013

‘Resprung’ @ 195 Anfu Lu is a site-specific installation of oil paintings.
These oil paintings are a celebration of the changing seasons conveying movement and vibrancy  Drawing inspiration from the flux and chaos of the Shanghai streets.

Feb - May 2014

These works contribute to a rotating art space in the hallway dividing a busy restaurant strip on Anfu Lu. These works create a dialogue of art in a public space.