Dr. Dena Ashbolt
Melbourne, Australia
Contemporary visual artist presenting regular exhibitions in Australia, Europe and Canada. Private commissions and collaborations undertaken.
MessageDena Ashbolt is a perceptual artist whose cinematic drawing technique consistently engages with time, its flow and passing. Her interdisciplinary practice includes drawing and painting, printmaking, filmmaking, photo-media, and collaborative performance projects.
Born in London, Ashbolt graduated with First Class Honours in Film and Photography at the University of Westminster, London. In 1987 she emigrated to Melbourne, establishing a long successful career in film as a performance director; experience that continues to inform her process and sensitive, collaborative approach for clients seeking private art commissions. In 2015 she obtained a doctorate in Fine Art from Monash University, her doctoral research, inspired by the work and writings of Henri Michaux.
Ashbolt’s studio practice is a consideration of cinematic drawing: drawing in response to the flow of time, and its revelations to collective and individual human experience. She has exhibited a variety of photographic prints, drawings and video installations with the Arts Council in England, at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London, at the Ballarat Art Gallery and the Bendigo Art Gallery. Ashbolt has also had solo shows in Melbourne, Montreal, and England. Her works are held in both private and public collections.
Ashbolt’s experience in film production focused on storytelling through imagery and performance, skills remaining integral to her creative practice across mediums. She has worked extensively as both a director and as a producer and has a strong practical understanding of the production and post-production processes in the creation of film and video materials. She is skilled and confident when communicating with clients and experienced at working collaboratively. She is calm and composed under pressure, and practiced at coordinating workflows, meeting deadlines, and sticking to a budget. Her strength is in communication by conveying understanding rather than spelling things out. This approach enables her to merge glamour and honesty, allowing her to convey the idealistic without compromising our sense of reality. Her work has been recognised at advertising award shows in New York, Chicago, Adelaide and Melbourne; and fine art prizes in Australia and the UK.
Statement
As a perceptual artist, my works are made in front of the subject, I witness, draw the observation through my body, and respond with a mark. I work quickly, the eye leading and informing the hand, a practice that involves a concentration of looking, and intuitive hand/eye co-ordination devoid of distraction.
I am fascinated by Time and my practice - cinematic drawing - engages with responses to the flow of time. My drawings respond to the flow of time as evinced by movement. In the life-drawing studio the appearance / disappearance of the life model in movement becomes my subject.
Copyright of all images, media and text Dena Ashbolt.
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