Image above: Georgie Maddox, Memory #11 (detail), 2022, oil on canvas with ink, 25 x 25cm (framed). Image courtesy the artist.
Drawing on Memory
Georgie Maddox
17 October 2022 – 15 March 2023
Georgie_Maddox_Online_catalogue
Georgie Maddox (b. 1981) is an emerging artist who has exhibited locally and nationally and has been selected as a finalist in various art award exhibitions including the prestigious Mosman Art Prize. Maddox is also a practicing Art Therapist. She holds a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Psychological Science (Hons), Advance Diploma of Art Therapy and is currently completing her PhD in Psychology at Flinders University; focused on the effects of drawing on memory and clinical cognition. Maddox is extremely passionate about continuing to build a strong evidence base to inform best practice in the use of creative art therapies for mental health.
In the exhibition, Adelaide artist Maddox explored the relationship between drawing, memory, and shared experience. To create these works, Maddox playfully facilitated a shared experience with her son (age 7) by drawing on small oil on canvas paintings. Each work was first painted to represent an abstract form, after which the images were altered in unison by artist and child to be a symbol of a past lived experience. The resulting abstract depictions are representative of childhood memories, for both the artist and her son. In this way, Drawing on Memory is an exhibition of works created through shared experience, that depict the expression of past-memories, and the simultaneous creation of new ones.
Drawing can help us explore and express memories, helping to enhance the amount of information we share about life events compared to only talking. In this way, communication through imagery is fundamental to our health, healing, and well-being, especially when such experiences are difficult to articulate in words alone. – Georgie Maddox, 2022