David Noonan

Untitled , 2015
silkscreen on linen collage
200 x 142 cm (collage); 203 x 145.5 cm (frame)

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Provenance
Yavuz Gallery, Singapore
Acquired from the above on 5 July 2016

Exhibited
Antipodean Inquiry, Yavuz Gallery, Singapore, 23 January - 27 March 2016


Untitled (2015) is from a series of silkscreen linen collages, where Noonan has used 'found imagery' that depicts Japanese theatrical performers backstage, applying make-up ahead of a show. Noonan has spent years building a collection of furoshiki textiles, or Japanese wrapping cloths, adorned with floral motifs like chrysanthemums or geometric patterns and auspicious symbols. Replicating the sashiko (“little stabs”) stitching patterns on traditional Japanese garments, Noonan superimposed patterns from furoshiki textiles over the top of found, figurative photographs. 

In Untitled (2015), a strong geometric pattern appears in the bottom right, with what appears to be a chrysanthemum motif in the upper left. Drawing on the Japanese practice of boro – or textiles that have been repaired and stitched together – the work has a diagonal fold running the image from the bottom left to the top right, cutting in front of the woman’s face. In the top left corner, the uppermost sheet of linen is folded over, revealing the underside of the screenprint and concealing a cartouche with Japanese script that has been stitched onto the fabric.

Untitled is reflective of Noonan’s deep appreciation of materiality, coupled with an equally complex appreciation of Japanese traditional textile techniques, that allows him to draw out the full visual impact of his selected photographic subjects.