Artist: Kristin Headlam
Lives: East Brunswick, Melbourne, NSW
Age:65
Represented by:Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne (no Sydney representation)
Her thing. A suite of 64 etchings in response to an epic poem.
Our take.Kristin Headlam’s etchings are the fruit of an unusual collaboration. From 1988 to 2005, her partner, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, was engaged in the composition of an epic poem called The Universe Looks Down. In 2012 Headlam was commissioned by the University of Melbourne’s Rare Books Collection to make a work to accompany the poem. The final result, which includes 32 etchings with acquatint and hand colouring, and 32 photo etchings, may be considered a delux artist’s book.
Having lived with the poem as it evolved, Headlam has introduced an autobiographical element into the sequence. Simple scenes of a woman sitting at a computer or drinking a cup of tea alternate with extravagant, allegorical imagery such as the fairy-tale forms of Milena wth fox and hedgehog or Elliptical world, which shows the earth pulled out of shape. The suite is not an illustration of her partner’s ambitious poem but an imaginative commentary.
Can I afford it?A set of prints may be bought and sold in many different ways. As an investment by far the best option is to acquire a complete edition for $20,000. This includes all 64 prints and a copy of Wallace-Crabbe’s poem in a custom-made solander box. There are only 6 full sets, together with 2 sets of Artist’s Proofs and 2 sets of Printer’s Proofs. One set has already been acquired by the National Library of Australia. Edition # 6 and a set of Artist’s Proofs will be broken up and sold as individual images during the Nodrum exhibition.
The prints come in five different sizes. The 11 largest, at 56cm by 38cm, are selling for $1,800. The smallest, at 28cm by 18cm, are the 32 photo-etchings that contain only text, priced at $550 each. Taken out of context the text pieces become a kind of conceptual art. It’s to be expected the pictorial works will attract the greatest interest.
Where can I have a squiz?
Charles Nodrum Gallery, 267 Church Street, Richmond, Melbourne, 20 October – 10 November, 2018. charlesnodrumgallery.com.au
Published in The Good Weekend, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 November, 2018