About the Artist
Penelope Thompson is an Australian contemporary artist working internationally. Her work includes outdoor and indoor installation art, performance art , interactive community art events as well as more conventional art forms such as painting, photography and sculpture. She is currently living in Australia where she works as an artist and teacher. This website provides a small sample of images, videos and information about her Explore Creativity classes and workshops, art exhibitions and performances.posted 13/08/2009 by Penelope Thompson
Artist's Statement
Often when people find out I am an artist they ask me why I don't just paint, or make nice, saleable art objects. They want to know why I travel around the world making temporary art installations or even briefer performances, that many people maybe don't understand. Those are fair questions, but the answers are not straightforward.I believe we are given this life to explore our selves, each other, and our world as much as we possibly can. We only have to look around our own town or country to see that many of our current human practices and belief systems are not functioning well to sustain life on this planet.
There is an old saying - 'if you keep doing what you've always done,
then you'll get what you've always got' - so I see art as a way of
creating new thought patterns and new experiences. The creative force is
within all of us, in fact, it is our life. I would like to think that my
art work can inspire and empower others to recognise their own creative
powers. In 2004 I was invited to a provincial school in Korea as their first ever foreign visitor and their first visiting artist. After finishing our interactive art experience called 'Making World Peace' one of the 14 year old students asked me through an interpreter why I was an artist. I thought for a moment about his question and then answered 'because it's FUN!'.
posted 13/08/2009 by Penelope Thompson
Quick links to some of Penelope's recent art events
- July 12-20, 2009. Installation and performance Matsushiro
Contemporary Arts Festival, Nagano, Japan.
Blog entry - "Interchange"- installation and performance, MCAF
2009, Japan.
- 2008 - April "Canadian survival apron" Upfront Aprons exhibition,
Maleny, Qld, Australia.
(See blog entry - "Canadian Survival Apron")
- December 11 -20, 2007. Installation and Opening performance
(performance Dec 11, 7.30 pm only) International Cultural Exchange
Exhibition, Ulsan Bukgu Culture & Arts Center, Ulsan City,
Korea.
(See blog entry - "Portrait of a foreign artist in Korea")
- October 2, 2007. Performance 'The Beauty Myth, Goyang
International Outdoor Sculpture Symposium, Korea.
Blog entry - 'Goyang International Sculpture Symposium opening
performance.
- August 24 - September 30, 2007 - Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. Installation of 'Treasure'- an artist's book at Noosa Regional Gallery, 'Books '07' group exhibition. More information at (See blog entry - "Treasure")
posted 13/08/2009 by Penelope Thompson
For more information or to contact the Artist
You are welcome to contact the artist via email with questions about her work. For her current location and a list of her previous exhibitions see Penelope's Artist's Biography and CV. Please explore the pages of this site for more information about specific art projects, exhibitions and performances since 2004.posted 13/08/2009 by Penelope Thompson
Quote:
The job of the artist is always to deepen the mystery.Francis Bacon.
