CATALOGUE ESSAY by Joey Hespe 2021
For some artists, the act of art making is a set of intentional and precise steps in an orthodox process; from sketching in perfectly placed objects to painting in observations and literal scapes. For Marise Maas, however, each work begins as a meditation and act of the present, where the outcome is a by-product of the philosophical manner of her work.
‘The Stash’, the title name of this exhibition, refers to Maas’ storing of her works safely in a hidden or secret place. Where she can be working on eight to ten works at any one time, it’s from the sacred space of her studio where Maas is able to disconnect from the outside world and escape into her own reality. A place where her intuition takes over and the canvas comes alive with symbolism and an intimate narrative. Where the magic happens in the space between the paintbrush and the canvas.
Maas’s process involves manically moving from one canvas to the next as visions and images flood her mind. This method allows subjects and themes to thread together, revealing a common pattern of what is veiled just below the surface of her psyche. Her use of the Surrealist Automatic style is evident; whereby similar to applying chance and intuition to mark-making, her paintings are to a large extent freed of rational control; where repressed memories are revealed. It’s from the unconscious that Maas’ work is imbued. Dreamlike images of horses and inanimate everyday objects hover, weightless, suspended in darkened matter; questioning if what we are seeing is really in front of us or perhaps a fabrication of our own subliminal meanderings.
Maas’ subconscious relates humans and horses as one in the same. The human face is replaced by that of a horse head, something the artist is yet to completely understand herself. Maas’ early memories as a young girl growing up in rural seaside Tasmania, where horses were a significant part of her life. Where they were used for transport; for freedom, for independence and as loyal companions. Perhaps it’s her innate bond with animals in a land where humans were scarce that is embedded in her memories via unconscious leakage onto the canvas. Or perhaps Maas’ horses denote childhood dreams of dancing, of the untapped joy of music, of the power of thought and of the expressive freedom that comes from art making.
By painting symbolic and hidden meanings - even hidden from her own conscious thoughts and transforming them onto the canvas, Maas’s process allows a cathartic response to her being. Each work an individual observation, but collectively her own film-roll of life; depicting images filtered from the world around her, from memories and embedded imagery. Of understanding life in all of its mundanity, of finding comfort and joy in the ordinary, of releasing the ego and allowing her thoughts to sit, still and come to rest on the canvas.
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Working from observation and imagination Marise Maas intuitively engages with elements of composition, line, shape and texture to create formal dialogues that visualise the profound ‘little happenings’ of the everyday. As Maas’ meandering brush searches for meaning in the mundane, accidents are given purpose and the unexpected reveals the poetry within the prosaic.
Born in the Netherlands, Marise Maas immigrated to Australia with her family in 1982. Maas’ work is represented in numerous major collections nationally and internationally, including the National Gallery of Australia, Artbank, BHP Billiton, Swinburne University of Technology and National Australia Bank Collection. She lives and works in Melbourne.
