Madeleine Kelly

This project is an ongoing diary of sorts. In these sculptures painted with encaustic wax, abstract images of birds primarily spotted in Australia are squeezed or trapped into the rectilinear architecture of empty Tetra Paks. The resulting expressionist distortions – angular in shape as determined by the cartons – are half bird and half cultural object, suggesting the continual commodification of nature, a world gradually destroying itself, and the transformation of rubbish. 

(Top to bottom)

Madeleine Kelly, Birds of the D’Aguliar Range 2017, encaustic on cardboard, 14 parts ranging from 8 x 11 x 11 to 27 x 27 x 9 cm.

Madeleine Kelly, Canberra birds: Cute craft for the painting archive, 2018 encaustc on cardboard, 19 parts ranging from 8 x 11 x 11 to 27 x 27 x 9 cm.

Madeleine Kelly, Leipzig birds 2016-17  Encaustic on cardboard with paper  23 parts ranging from 8 x 11 x 11cm to 27 x 9 x 9cm

Madeleine Kelly, Spectra of birds 2014-15
 Encaustic on cardboard with paper and text 40 parts ranging from 8 x 11 x 11cm to 27 x 9 x 9cm; installed dimensions variable Purchased 2015 with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA

Madeleine Kelly, Spectra of birds 2014-15
 Encaustic on cardboard with paper and text 40 parts ranging from 8 x 11 x 11cm to 27 x 9 x 9cm; installed dimensions variable Purchased 2015 with funds from the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Diversity Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art Foundation Collection: Queensland Art Gallery. Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA