Di Holdsworth

Turn turn turn

Exhibition dates: Weds 8 Oct - Sat 25 Oct 2008
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I have vivid memories of long hot summer days when I ran wild with my brother shooting at him with a shiny silver gun that I could pull deftly from my cowgirl holster.

Together he and I invented the rules of murder and death. We also spent hours under the dining table where a menagerie of plastic animals roamed and a locomotive raced murderously around its track causing certain death to any hapless animal that wondered into its path.

In this series of assemblages I have tried to evoke that time in childhood when one is able to fuse the edges of reality and play: to draw from a time when everything is possible and the discoveries of fear and death are tempered by joy and innocence.

This series was created with affection and irony, often having a slightly malevolent edge. The works are constructed from vintage boxes, tins, toys, bric-a-brac, and collage. Concealed inside are music boxes and mechanical movements.

Wind one of the works and listen to the music resonate as an emu dances or a ship rides a wave.

Biography
2006-08 Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, Drawing Teacher (part-time)
2008 Sydney University, Life Drawing Workshop, Continuing Education
2004-5 University of Western Sydney, Lecturer in Drawing (casual)
1989-97 UWS, Lecturer in Drawing, Painting & Foundation Studies (casual)
2000&2 Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, Drawing Teacher (part-time)
1994-96 Western Sydney Institute of TAFE, Drawing Teacher (part-time)

Academic Qualifications
1991 Master of Creative Arts University of Wollongong
1986-8 Bachelor of Arts, Visual Arts, UWS (graduated with distinction)
1985 Art Certificate, St George TAFE

Awards and scholarships
1991 Australian Post Graduate Course Award, University of Wollongong

Solo exhibitions
2007 Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Music Box Assemblage
2006 Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Mechanical photomontage
1993 Crawford Gallery, East Sydney
1992 Technology Centre, University of Wollongong

Selected group exhibitions
2008 (December) Postcards III, John Paynter Gallery, Newcastle
2007 Another Little Piece of my Heart, Penrith Regional Gallery
2007 Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Group Show
2006 Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Group Show
2005 Rex-livingston art dealer, Sydney, Group Show
2004 UWS, Staff Exhibition, Space YZ, UWS
1996 Nepean TAFE Staff Exhibition, Trapezium Gallery
1995 Concerns beyond the Perimeter, Sydney Fringe Festival, Nepean Art House
1994 Seeing Voices Hearing Visions, Nepean Art House
1993 No Angels No Trumpets, Space YZ, UWS
1990 Variations, New England Regional Art Museum
1988-9 EMR Gallery, Redfern NSW
1988 Graduation Exhibition, Nepean College of Advanced Education
1988 Images, Penrith Regional Gallery