squinch (uno)
Mandy Ridley’s way into and around art-making is far from linear. She expresses her artistic interests as drawn from ‘sharing a world view with others, and an interest in the connective cultural threads between people’. And when her art-making is the subject, a sense of her real life events, responsibilities and the intricacy of the connections—the many and varied elements that make up a life in the Brisbane suburbs—come into play. Ridley’s professional life and artistry extend from her personal and familial situation—all of which inform the work in a spider web of intricacy, a search for cultural intimacy driving her process and exploration.
She suggested that in her career to date (which includes public art-making and creative partnerships with Urban Art Projects, Metro Arts, architects BVN and Hassell) she generally works alone but gravitates to others, quickly establishing rapport: ‘I lodge like a barnacle’. Stylistic consistency is less important to her than innovation.
Squinch (uno), shown at Level (an artist run initiative offering residencies located in Brisbane’s Newstead), traces an international journey that Ridley undertook with Australia Council backing in 2009. While the funding was specifically focused on Ridley’s research into Islamic Art, including a conference in Cordova, Spain, the trip extended into a one-hundred and seven day journey.
Ridley developed the work shown in the exhibition during a four months residency at Level. She reflected on her travels, the art and other cultural phenomena, and out of a process of daily drawing, created a ‘first response’ to the stimulus of a trip during which she traversed Spain, Paris and other European centres.
Squinch is an architectural term describing ‘a small arch or vault, placed diagonally across the