Right Column, 2nd from bottom: Artist, Madeline Kidd in her studio
Artist Madeline Kidd’s present practice can be defined as the curating of contemporary artworks, representational or abstract, into real and pseudo-fictional domestic settings. The sculptures, paintings, installations and theatrical designs that she produces are conceptualized as ‘set pieces’ or what is known as ‘costume sculpture’. Commonplace and familiar icons of interior decoration, such as paintings, floral arrangements, fruit plates, abstract sculptures, symbols, even wall-paintings, are appropriated and recreated into her work.
With her present exhibition, Decor8, Madeline has built upon the concept of appropriation and has hand-painted a set of watercolors to become an encapsulation of interior decoration style.
The set of prints are specifically designed to individually reflect each room in a house: den, bedroom, children’s room, kitchen, dining room, study, lounge, hall. Flowers for the bedroom, cocktails for the lounge, card games for the den – 8 pictures of 8 decors for 8 rooms. ‘Take one home, take home the set’ Décor8!
Madeline Kidd lives and works in Melbourne. Since graduating from the Canberra School of Art school in 2000 she has exhibited across Australia and New Zealand. In 2004 she was a finalist for the Brett Whitely Travelling Art Scholarship and undertook an Artist in Resident at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. In 2010 she was also shortlisted for the Emerging Artist category of the Redlands Art Prize. Kidd’s work as an art director for film and theater has had a direct influence on her art practice. As part of the 2010 Next Wave Festival, she exhibited Washroom, an installation inside the change rooms at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where the rooms were elaborately dressed like a set, creating a fictitious reality of the MCG’s Inner Sanctum. Recently Kidd exhibited in the all female group show Sculpture Party, at C3 Gallery and the Third/fourth Melbourne artist-facilitated Biennial at the Margaret Lawrence Gallery in Melbourne. She has also curated several exhibitions including Sushichampagnepaintingsculpture which situated artwork within a domestic space, another theme of her work.