Kelsey Ashe is a contemporary artist and writer whose aesthetic and prose draws from themes within Austral-Asian inter-cultural studies, constructed mythologies and ficto-critical narrative.  Grounded in motifs of the Antipodean landscape, Ashe seeks to comprehend the hidden, mysterious, and deeply powerful sense of the sublime within landscape and our earthly and human relationship to it. 

 

Ashe has a Doctorate in Philosophy (PhD Art) which directs a depth of knowledge into contemplative works that examine both harmonious and difficult moments of cultural collision.  In the age of the ‘Archival turn’ Ashe delves into allegorical, historical and mythological narratives, to subvert, intervene or disrupt the colonial archive.

 

Ashe surveys cultural identity drawn from her Celtic convict and migratory ancestry and from the Austral-Asian basin she calls home - (the vast geographical region that sweeps from Polynesia to Aotearoa (New Zealand) across the land mass of Tasmania and Australia to Asia and Japan).
 

Exploring the universal symbology of cultures, both ancient and modern, Ashe seeks resonances from previous era’s; sensing traces of stories or beliefs from place, to perceive perceptions or concerns for contemporary culture.  Ashe’s practice-led research has traversed print and illustration, textiles and cloth, photography and film, performance and painting, with each new idea finding its unique expression of form.

Dr. Catriona McAra, Curator at Leeds Art University UK writes; 'Ashe is something of a sorceress, conjuring within the realm of the international feminist-surrealist revival. Her practice has a powerful, consciousness raising ability; its tendrils are far-reaching, yet the work remains deeply rooted in an antipodean, postcolonial context. Ashe could be said to story-tell through what Michelle Williams Gamaker terms “fictional activism” (2018), a critique and illuminating recasting of traditional actors.' (McAra, 2021)

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ARTIST STATEMENT:

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"My creative works are responses to stories or mythologies that intrigue me…usually because of a hidden, esoteric element and often with a historical/contemporary or East/West dichotomy.  For example the constructed Exotic; where multiple layers of myth, story and culture have dwelled in one landscape or place, transitioning and interacting over time, has been a central concern.  I am drawn to human expressions of the universal mysteries in graphic forms and patterns, favouring semiotic readings over literal or formal ones. The mystery of life on both a cosmic and human scale delights and fascinates me and my practice-led production follows this intrigue at will…" (Kelsey Ashe, 2024)

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SELECT EXHIBITIONS:

 

2024  The Deep Green Sea, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery WA.

2024  Resurface: Gothic Tales from the Indian Ocean, IOTA24; Codes in Parallel, Alcoa Mandurah Art Gallery,               WA.

2024   Paper Trails; Singapore Art Week Sculpture 2502, National Arts Council, SINGAPORE.

2024   York Botanic Art Prize Finalist, York, WA.

2023   EPIC WORKS: From the Horn Collection of WA Art, Bunbury Regional Art Gallery WA.

2022   Cartography of Care, Spilt Milk Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

2022   Wardan 2022 Perth Festival Wam Wardanup Strangers on the Shore, Gallery Holmes a Court, WA.

2022   Divergent Terrain, Artsource Fremantle WA.

2021    Cladogram International Juried Biennale, Katonah Museum of Art, New York, USA.

2021    Melville Art Award Finalist, Wireless Hill Museum, WA.

2021    IAP Joondalup Invitation Art Award Finalist, Whitford City, WA.

2021    Aura IOTA21 Indian Ocean Craft Triennial, Kidogo Art House, WA.

2021    Archetype Solo Exhibition Moores Building, WA.

2020   Tracing the Swan, Gallery Holmes a Court, Vasse Felix, WA.

2020   Electric Muses Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland UK.

2020   Imaginary Territories, PS Art Space, Fremantle, WA.

2021    Margins Barrett Art Centre, New York, Curated by Anthony Elms, Chief Curator Institute of                                   Contemporary Art. USA. 

2020  Gesture and Motion, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, Curated by Margaret Carrigan, Art Institute of Chicago.

             New York, USA. 

2020  31 Women (A remake of Peggy Guggenheim’s Exhibition from 1943 of 31 International Surrealist                             women).  Curated by Dr. Catriona McAra. Sedona Arts Centre, USA. 

2020   The Debutante (Launch), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

2019    Fremantle Biennale UnderCurrent 2019, Western Australia Maritime Museum, WA.

2018    Dark Swan: Contemporary Tales of the Gothic Antipodes, PS Art Space WA.

2018    Imaginary Aesthetic Territories. John Curtin Gallery, WA.

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COLLECTIONS:

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Holmes à Court Art Collection 

City of Fremantle Art Collection 

Horn Collection of Contemporary West Australian Art

City of Joondalup Art Collection

City of Bunbury Art Collection

John Curtin Gallery (JCG) University Collection

Ideé Fixe (Vasse Felix) 

Burnie, (Tasmania) Regional Art Collection

Circular Head (Tasmania) Council Collection