The exhibition of the works of Raquel Redmond, Barbara Poulsen and Kath Kerswell was the third in a series of pilot programs leading up to the official opening of the new Arts Council Gallery in Brisbane. The concern of these three artists is the socio-spatial. Three working mothers have addressed, in different ways, the issue of female spaces-the problematic overlays of private and public, of emotional interiority and physical organisation and expression.
Raquel Redmond began producing her linoblock prints when at home with her two small children. The works alternately display the exterior and interior of old Brisbane houses in vibrant expressionist colour. The homes are old 'Queenslanders' and their intense laborious rendition in an almost exotic naïvety binds the scenes with a sense of lived-in ordinariness and a factual recording of everyday detail. Yet the almost iconic repetition of certain objects—the empty chairs, opened suitcases, lattice work, verandahs, reveal a deep concern for domestic space: the ambiguous space of the verandah which is neither inside nor out; the 'travelling', 'essential' space of the suitcase; the comfortable, inviting space of the chair.
The works constantly allude to a human presence and human usage without succumbing to a negativity of absence. The arrangement of colour, attention to detail and the material dominance of the linoblock process create a strangely positivist feminine aesthetic which claims 'I notice', 'I am constantly aware of my environment', 'I organise and I am organised by my space and my possessions.'
The three dimensional ceramic works of Barbara Poulsen address a similar concern on a more symbolic and theoretical level. Poulsen's work is informed by her growing awareness of feminist theory. Poulsen finds in the clay medium