Natasha Walsh

When I first approached her at the beginning of my intervention at the Brett Whiteley Studio for The National 4 her studio had just flooded and so the timing did not line up. I hoped that eventually we could collaborate on a work as, with all the creatives I approached, I really admired her work. It is so uniquely energising and I find the different Eastern visual history she draws upon and contemporizes very Sympatico to my own practice but from a different family tree.

We settled on a reimagining of Whistlers 'Princess du Porcelain' (The Princess from the Land of Porcelain). At the time Japanisme was popular and many artists drew on that different visual tradition, replaced with western subjects. However, critics tended to gloss over Whistler's Chinese influences, as these were seen as less in vogue. In 'Princess du Porcelain', like with many other paintings from this genre, a European woman is garbed in the traditional dress from Eastern traditions like a porcelain doll. She balances that bridge between the exotic and the familiar.

Louise and I proceeded to replace all the elements from Whistler's painting with contemporary references to Louise's studio. She is an artist, not a doll. Not just decorative but creative and functional. Yes we imagined her in a work inspired by her favourite designer (find the name of the Japanese Australian designer Louise loves) but she is also in her yellow studio crocks. Her work sits on the screen behind her. The two decorative fans have been replaced with two practical studio fans. I asked Louise what she thought we should do with the rug beneath her feet to which she said 'something like fuck off whistler', to which I suggested we write exactly that in Chinese characters, to which she laughed and said yes, writing a little prop for me to use as a reference. it is playful, tongue in cheek and boy did we have fun with it.

Louise shared that anyone born in China would be able to read that her writing was that of someone who learned to write in the language from outside.