Two years after my copper plate etching of the landmark Dee Why home at 151 Pacific Parade, Dee Why, taking the cover of the September 2022 Tawny Frogmouth, I am back with another recent etching completed late last year. With that dearly beloved Dee Why home now sadly being wiped from the landscape, I am glad to have had the opportunity to immortalise it through the process of printmaking as well as on the cover of the Northern Beaches’ monthly mag.
In finalising my Master of Fine Arts Degree at the National Art School (NAS) in late 2023, I wanted to give both narrative and personalisation to my work. This pushed me into depicting the domestic space via furniture and mundane objects of the home. Fast forward to the November 2024 cover, I invite you to move from outside on the street and step inside of the house, to imagine a time from yesteryear and focus on those domestic objects we utilise amongst the home such as furniture, in particular the chair.
For my postgraduate show at NAS, a great amount of my work utilised parts of chairs, parts of building supplies such as gyprock, and more. My work has pushed the boundaries of printmaking, a practice I am so familiar with. For my upcoming exhibition, titled Convoluted, at the Curl Curl Creative Space between 30 October and 10 November, I pull apart the chair and what the domestic space means to me. There are prints, moulds of domestic objects, paintings, video media work and more.
Inspired by the passing of my mother in 2021 to cancer, my utilisation of the domestic space queries what it means to be a mother, what it means to be a son, and what it means to express grief. It explores the bodily essence and trace left behind on objects such as chairs, whilst depicting some objects that both haunt and comfort my soul.
The title of this exhibition, Convoluted, pays homage to the object convoluted foam. A regular material used in cushions, pillows, and mattress toppers. This was a material that gave my mother comfort in her days leading to demise. However, in my research and writing my exegesis for my Master of Fine Art, I realised this object was one that haunted me, that reminded me of the worst days before she died.
I have found it important to come to terms with utilising an object that triggers me so much, hence the title of the show. Objects such as these hold spectral qualities, in both positive and negative forms.
You’re invited to Josh’s ‘Convoluted’ exhibition, Wednesday 30 October to Sunday 10 November at the Creative Space, 105 Abbott Rd, North Curly.
Keep up to date with Josh’s work by following on socials @j.coppo and learn more at his website joshcoppo.com
More from our local artists
Head here for all interviews with our Tawny Frogmouth cover artists
Feature me
Are you an artist local to the Northern Beaches and want to be featured in the Tawny Frogmouth? Email mail@thetawnyfrogmouth.com.au