About us 
Zoë MacDonell, Fantasyland Series, 2006
Zoë MacDonell's work for Match Box Friendship Wall & Match Box Gallery
Zoë MacDonell
Zoe is the first artist we invited to collaborate with us back in 2006. Her Fantasyland Friendship work has travelled in our History Gallery to invite all others artists to take part in our projects and she has taken part in many artist talks, and exchange programs we have hosted since 2006.
Fantasyland Series, mixed media 2006
Work for Friendship Wall/Match Box Gallery/Solo Match Box Gallery
Fantasyland is a study of remnants and discarded objects that I have discovered within the landscape. These include natural objects such as found botanical specimens, and man made objectgs including wrappers, old papers and pieces of patterned plastic.
The artworks embody photography, printing, drawings and collage created from locations significant to me in Australia and Japan. These merge together to become one. The imagery is a collage, referencing how we alter our surroundings and mind in order to create our own reality within a specific location. Intergrating these elements from very different landscapes creates a fun fantasyland, full of layers and contrast. The works draws reference to the different experiences connected with travel, becoming a series of layered stories. The creations of each piece refelect my journey.
Distillation, 2007
Installation, Gosford Edogawa Commemorative Garden for Match Box Projects Influence Japan, 2007 (part of Journey to Japan Event)
Media: Resin, paper, textiles
Process: Casting, stencil cut and monoprint
Dimension: 10 cm diameter cylinders, varied heights, between 40 cm and 100 cm.
Distillation combines paper stripes from glossy magazines, phonebooks, sweet wrappers, fabric scraps and pages of text from a Japanese play. These are all items that represent popular culture and entertainment. Each of these items has been hand cut into grass like slithers or botanical forms. These fragments appear like an organic growth, suspended in clear resin cylinders. The work explores ideas of concealment and exposure. The work is both solid and delicate. Each sculpture emerges from the ground like a strange shoot or growth. The cylinders are like dimensional realities or time tunnels. They create an illusionary reality. The work aims to reflect the transitory nature of creation, exploring in essence the impermanence of time and space.
The work is inspired by the simplicity of traditional Japanese gardens. The fabric elements trapped within the sculpture are stencil cut from the materials used for a previous work, ‘Tokyo Imprints’. This work was developed in response to a research trip to Japan in 2004. Distillation, builds on this work, becoming a three-dimensional installation. This work investigates the imagination and fundamental views of our true nature.
Sydney-Biennalle Exchange
In 2006 we visited Zoe's studio with Biennale of Sydney exhibiting Artist Kei Takemura
Link
Images © Zoë MacDonell and Match Box Projects
