Dr Gali Weiss is an artist and lecturer in Creative Practice (Visual Arts) at Deakin University, Melbourne.
Her arts practice has centred on drawing installations, the artist’s book, and more recently on multimedia work comprising drawing, printmaking, photo media, and sound.
She has conducted practice-led research on notions of portraiture and diaspora, and continues to write and publish research on identity, subjectivity, material perceptions of time, and art and social/political engagement. Gali was the facilitator of Unfolding Projects: Afghan and Australian Artist Book Collaborations held at Queensland State Library.
Artist note:
Dear Daughter is the first part of a larger project that explores handwriting as drawing; as mark-making that leaves trace of hand and gesture while at the same time evolves as a dialogue in the present.
The work in this exhibition itself traces a lived moment in time left by my father’s mark, his handwriting. In 1998, my father handed me his self-published memoir. He’d added a handwritten inscription on page 2, dedicating, or rather gifting, that particular copy to me.
He’d also prepared a copy for my sister, and one for each of his grandchildren, each with a unique and personalised dedication. My father died in 2007 after being noncommunicative for five years with Alzheimer’s disease.
My work with his writing attempts to draw out a sense of presence and new meanings from the marks of his hand and thoughts.
Dear Daughter Book I, 2012, Photopolymer relief on Kozo paper, BFK Rives cover, Edition of 2 & 1 artist’s proof, 20 x 28cm
Dear Daughter Book II, 2012, Photopolymer intaglio on Kozo paper, BFK Rives cover, Edition of 2 & 1 artist’s proof, 20 x 28cm
Dear Daughter Book III, 2012, Photopolymer relief on Kozo paper, BFK Rives cover, Edition of 2 & 1 artist’s proof, 20 x 28cm
Binding: George Matoulas, Size: 20 x 28cm, courtesy the artist and State Library of Victoria & University of Melbourne (both institutions own the 2 editions, edition on show is Artist’s Proof) NFS