Kellie Wells
Kellie Wells’ PhD research explores both the evolving subjective position in visual art and the purpose, potential and pitfalls of the ‘self as subject’ in artistic practice. Auto//Mysticism was developed as a unique research methodology that emerged from a range of discourses on temporality, esoteric technologies and strategies of practice. Designed within speculative spheres which orbit the Knowing, Unknowing and Unknowable realms of meaning-making, Auto//Mysticism foregrounds personal accounts and reliquary bodily materials from terrains of felt, remembered, or imagined realities. This research contribution proffers iterative systems and modes of praxis and their resulting artefacts and documents of account, not as final destinations but as tools to both explore and represent the multidimensional nature(s) of subjectivity.
Kellie Wells, Exhibition of works, The Alchemy of Auto//Mysticism, Front Space Fiona Sidney Myer Gallery, February 2022
Kellie Wells, (left) Through Catherine, 2019, framed C-type photographic print. 113 x 190 cm, (right) Kinship Bottles // In-Between Places, 2022-22, Installation of hand blown glass vessels, framed C-type photographic prints, black quartz sand, morse code messages in glass beads, 180 x 180 x 240 cm
Kellie Wells, (left) Ursula’s Dance, 2020-22, video, 9:54 minute loop, quartz crystal ball, customised wooden plinth, (right) Perimenopause Reliquary (as dissipating constellation), 2020-22, eucharist bread wafers, artist’s menstrual blood, gold leaf, ink, lacquer, Dimensions variable
Kellie Wells, Vertigo Ladder and Witch’s Ball, 2021-22, Suspended acrylic disc, engraved brass rod, handblown Murano glass ball, borax crystals grown on artist’s hair Dimensions variable.
Kellie Wells, (left) Blood Tarot // The Hanged Man (From the Blood Tarot Series // Major Arcana) 2021-22, Eucharist bread wafer, artist’s venal blood drawing, acrylic and wooden box engraved with coded language, customised light box, 45 x 65 cm, (centre background) Totem // Hermetic Abacus, 2021-22, solid brass rod, hand built and glazed ceramic, 150 x 34 cm (right) Through Catherine, 2019, framed C-type photographic print. 113 x 190 cm
Kellie Wells, (left) Anchorite, 2020-21, single channel video on 8:20 minute loop with audio surround (right) Totem // Hermetic Abacus, 2021-22, solid brass rod, hand built and glazed ceramic, 150 x 34 cm
Faculty of Fine Arts and Music
University of Melbourne