Tiny Altars to Seeing Sparkles
Frances & Rhianna

Frances and Rhianna are friends. Many of Meanjin’s brightest young creatives know the girls as figures who were at the heart of Studio Maverik. After meeting at QCAD where they both majored in drawing, the girls have remained close friends and business partners — where they've achieved a lot together - their welcoming and supportive community connected students, artists and established creators through workshops, exhibitions, events, and online publications.

Frances and Rhianna are artists.
After stepping back from their commitments to their ARI, they sought time to reinvest in their own projects. While Both girls had continued to work over the past three years, exhibiting in group shows — Frances held a solo show here at Side Gallery in 2023, and Rhianna ran the photography studio at The Station. While they were still making, neither felt as if they were making their art ‘work’, and were still seeking a catalyst that would return them to play and discovery in their practice — essential steps, and the first ones to fall aside to the demands of a busy schedule.

Frances and Rhianna had sought the time, but it was time without place.

Frances — I wanted to re-learn how to enjoy making again, to open my eyes to new ways of seeing and experiencing my surroundings. I had not exhibited or produced artwork with a sense of confidence or authenticity for quite some time.

Kavala, northern Greece, is a classical port city. Crowned with an ancient wall, she reaches elegantly down into the sparkling blue Mediterranean. It’s a setting for dramatic romance — rocky coastline, small fishing boats, and large pine trees. Nestled in the heart of the town is Eutopia, a non profit artist residency program. Open to creatives from any discipline, Eutopia encourages experimentation in response to the history and ecology of Kavala. Residents’ initiative is to work in response to the town, seeking their muses as artists and poets have always sought theirs, in the seas, coastlines, and mountains of Greece.

So the friends, artists, left to seek. Frances’s practice focused on loose, gestural forms to construct an entirely feminist Fauvism, Rhianna worked as documentarian — always the one behind a camera, a quiet chronicaler. While seemingly working at opposing ends of the realist/formalist scale, the girls’ time at Eutopia blurred these established distinctions.

Each day, their paths wound through the streets and shores of Kavala, and as they walked, sketched, and swam in the sparkling Aegean, their muses revealed themselves.

Rhianna — I found myself sketching daily in my journal and taking photos on my walks, without any pressure of a resolved outcome. I was thinking a lot about the colours of Kavala and its textures, and I wanted to capture those little bits in my photos — little mementos of sensation.

Rhianna has an instinctual affinity for capturing the ephemeral. Her work, on film especially, has a warm, tangible presence, like there is some other quality captured alongside shade and light. Rhianna records lived experience on film, and in these images we walk, swim and discover Kavala’s presence ourselves. The shade — the quiet reprieve of a back-street courtyard; and the light — afternoon sun rays that pierce fishing nets, accented by loose scales, and salt from the turquoise sea. That other quality is the distinct impression of Rhianna’s time under the Grecian sun — framed as central feature tiles, these warm, textured moments are framed, mosaic-like, against gelato, rusted iron, and white washed walls.

Rhianna — My photos are imperfect — they have little specks of dust from the scanner and some signs of damage on film. I didn’t want to get rid of all the marks; I wanted them to speak to the title, to the sparkles. To the presence, the energy, and the felt experience of being there.

While the muse of time revealed herself to Rhianna, Kavala the place, the sea and sky, inform Fran’s work from Eutopia. Coaxed by her muse towards Kavala’s archeological past, Fran’s imagery has come back changed — accents of stone in speckled backgrounds and marbled brushstrokes have taken the place of joyous nudes.

Frances — In the evening, I’d spend time in the shared studio space processing the days’ memories through paper and painting. As time progressed, I moved away from works on paper and started to explore free-flow painting and collage on board, producing little object-like works.

The colour palette of Fran’s Tiny Alters are sun faded, painted plaster, seaweed washed ashore. The sea itself moves in small, soft, waves through expressive brushstrokes across surfaces, cut through with her trademark silhouettes- now of angular pillars and ancient ceramics.

Rhianna — I enjoyed the parallel exploration with Fran — Bakery breakfasts, coffee dates, swims, and meeting up late for dinner. It was a romance of friendship, the Aegean Sea, and our art practices.

In Kavala, the friends, artists, found what they sought. In their individual ways they’ve returned with work touched by this romance. The collection that has become Tiny Alters to Seeing Sparkles is a combined memoir of their discovery, a translation of Greek mythos into bright glimpses of sunshine, salt, and marble. It is a romantic portrait of a friendship, and an ode to the transformative power of both time and place.

By Jessica McNicol

About the Curator

Laura Brinin

Laura Brinin is a curator of contemporary art, currently facilitating the vibrant program at Side Gallery in the heart of Red Hill, Brisbane. With an unwavering passion for nurturing connections with emerging and established creatives, Laura is dedicated to fostering artistic growth through avenues such as social media, branding, and identity development.

Laura has exhibited her own work both in Australia and overseas, as well as working as an independent freelance curator across Brisbane for over ten years. In her downtime, you can find her reading, travelling, or stalking dogs.

—   laura@sidegallery.com.au