Slow Burn
Rebecca Kilpatrick
15 February–3 March 2024

By mid-afternoon, UV has a tendency to saturate through skin to the bone, and by extension to one’s soul.

More than sweat drains from the body and mind, as black shirts burn on washing lines and grass crunches from every dehydrated impression.

The unseen, hidden, becomes visible – a small piece of you dies, as a foreign body evaporating in a hostile ecosystem designed without forgiveness.

Slow Burn, a solo exhibition by Sydney-based interdisciplinary artist Rebecca Kilpatrick, is an investigation of their time spent living interstate, dealing with the internal and environmental challenges of failure to adapt to their new life. Burnt out; sunburnt; and burnt by others, carefully curated botanical still life arrangements are engulfed by cadmiums and crimsons while compositions deconstruct into something uncanny and wrong.

Rebecca Kilpatrick is an interdisciplinary artist, working in the mediums of printmaking; painting; drawing; and installation.

Born in Sydney, Kilpatrick trained in printmaking and drawing at the National Art School (Darlinghurst, NSW) and a Diploma of Graphic Design (Illustration) at Enmore Design Centre (Enmore, NSW). They then completed a Master of Museum studies at the University of Queensland. In addition to this training, the artist also worked for several arts organizations including UQ Art Museum, QUAM, QM, and art material merchants. 

Kilpatrick’s academic training and experience are reflected in their artist practice, seen choices including nods to graphic printmaking principles and material choices gained through knowledge acquired from over a decade engaging with fine art material manufacturers and artists alike.

Themes  in their work consider: the conflict of memory & nostalgia, gendered subjects in art history, and history of materials/colour; all evident in Kilpatrick’s building body of work.

Works in collection include National Art School, GOMA, UQ Fryer Library, and private collections.