Auricula 1996

Curator: This is Mary Fedden's "Auricula," created in 1996 using watercolour. What's your first take on this piece? Editor: I'm instantly charmed. There's something wonderfully eccentric about the composition; the somewhat wonky perspective gives it an irresistible homemade quality. It makes me want to brew some tea and start a slightly chaotic art project. Curator: It’s interesting you pick up on that domesticity. Fedden's work, especially later in her career, often incorporated these familiar still life elements. This approach deliberately resisted the grand narratives favored by the established art world, making her art quite accessible to the general public. She wasn't afraid of beauty, or simple pleasure. Editor: Exactly! And that’s what hits me so hard. Those simple pleasures are anything but. See how she's rendered the flowers? Those almost cartoonish petals! And the garlic bulbs sharing space with the pear like old friends. Curator: Yes, her use of 'naive art' stylistic choices helped dismantle hierarchies within the art world. She demonstrated how the 'ordinary' could be elevated, and explored with as much validity as more traditionally celebrated subjects. Her application of paint, too, shows she isn't pursuing perfect representation. Editor: It feels less like observing reality and more like an imagined world, you know? Almost like a stage set or an illustration in a children's book. Yet somehow, I think its the realer for it. A memory reinterpreted rather than just copied. And watercolor, of all media, carrying all of this... wonderful! Curator: It's Fedden’s rejection of convention. By playing with perspective and form, and integrating stylistic approaches often considered "folksy," she broadened the discourse around art and challenged our expectations of 'high' and 'low' art. Editor: True. So, beyond the academic, what does it leave you with? For me, it's the feeling you get after a perfectly imperfect day, the slightly burnt toast somehow adding to its charm. It's humble. It's heartfelt. Curator: I'm left considering her influence, actually. She cleared ground for many subsequent artists by demonstrating it was okay not to follow art world trends, and still find recognition and acclaim. That folk style did anything but undermine the art and career she built. Editor: Absolutely. "Auricula" does way more than represent flowers and fruit. It invites, maybe even dares, us to reimagine what matters. Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go forage for inspiration around the kitchen.