Nature Camp
Solo exhibition - Onwards Studio, Newcastle, Australia
February 2021
Install photograph by Candice Carlin
Nature Camp, Holly Leonardson’s first solo exhibition, is a collection of paper collages and digitally printed collage quilts inspired by both her first-hand camping experiences and depictions of summer camp as portrayed in Australian and American books and film.
Films such as Addams Family Values, The Parent Trap and Piranha offered a rich visual experience of camp activities, with characters wearing colourful and somewhat impractical clothing choices while navigating friendships and the natural environment. Advertisements for wilderness camps for young people were found in the back of National Geographic magazines, and Children’s Annuals from 1960s and 70s featured stories of Girl Guides and Boy Scouts were also used as inspiration and physical materials by cutting out images and referencing text in titles.
In creating these works, Holly’s intention is to capture a light-hearted experience of camping and spending time in the outdoors by utilising cut and paste methods to assemble found images of animals, landscapes, shells, camping scenes, mushrooms, craft items and tokens of friendship such as handmade necklaces and charms. These visual elements reflect and combine her interest in nature and crafts, and are sourced from her extensive collection of vintage books and magazines.
While making work for the exhibition, a new approach to her style of collage making evolved when experiments with patchwork-style compositions of square and rectangular images were paired with colourful acrylic gouache painted paper panels and overlaid with more images as ‘patches’. These collages are a reflection of Holly’s fascination with the improvisational patchwork and quilt making of the artist’s in Gee’s Bend. Being much smaller than everyday quilts, the twelve original paper collages were digitally manipulated and scaled up to create three larger overall compositions. These larger patchwork arrangements, digitally reproduced on cotton fabric and sewn together, are displayed as art objects but can also simply function as blankets in everyday life.
Nature Camp install photographs by Candice Carlin
