Niqui Toldi’s Unbeing exhibition at Junky Comics: girls and anxiety

Words: Saskia Edwards

Images: Jonathan Rae

In Niqui Toldi’s illustrations there’re lots of girls - short hair, long hair, smoking, angry, pierced, bound.

But really, all these girls are Niqui. They’re like a self-portrait - a manifestation of how she feels and is. And they’re a way of grappling with her own life and self-identity. 

She says: “it’s just sort of a way for me to deal with how I’m feeling internally because I’m not always good at externalising how I feel to other people.

“It’s sort of a way for me to separate myself from being too vulnerable at the same time. It’s being vulnerable but without being completely vulnerable.

“Because it’s not always necessarily completely obvious that they are almost me.”

The girls seem sad at times, self-destructive, lost, with hands anxiously clasping at the ground or onto a cigarette or a match or a scalpel. And they do really display anxiety quite well - where nothing bad is happening immediately but you’re trapped sitting there half naked smoking and feeling helpless with a whirlwind in your brain.

This ‘Unbeing’ series looks at the last year of Niqui’s life. 

“A lot of things happened - a relationship I had of four years had just ended, my grandmother who lives alone and I’m her only blood relative... had a stroke so I’m her main contact.

“Then I was getting more responsibilities at work and it was the first year I’d been medicated and properly diagnosed for my anxiety.

“So it was a huge collection of all these things happening in the one year.

“I just started to deal with it - started drawing it.”

But it’s not that easy. Putting on a solo exhibition was a big deal for Niqui. 

“Because of my anxious nature and shyness I’ve always been really reluctant and I almost hold myself back.

“So this is the first time that I’ve really let myself put myself out there.

“Even last night at the launch, it was exciting and I was nervous and people had started coming in.

“And maybe five people had come in that I didn’t know and I just started crying up the back, which is really ridiculous because this is a really good thing, this is a fun time.”

Of course it went really well. People sardined themselves into Junky Comics, admiring what I guess they thought were imaginary sirens. 

If you really think about it, Niqui’s works remind you of the true purpose of art. They show that out of anxiety, self-doubt and heart ache you can make something. And it can be beautiful.

David Shrigley and existentialism at NGV

Words: Saskia Edwards
Images: Jonathan Rae
Original Artwork: David Shrigley

A sculpture of a naked man that intermittently blinks and then urinates into a bucket is hardly the image that springs to mind when thinking of existentialism.

While David Shrigley’s works may not fit the classic manifestation of existentialism - think Kafka and Nietzsche - they do force an inner contemplation of life.

Or more, they confront you with the banality of human existence.

It’s hard to look at Shrigley’s works without feeling a sense of humourous nihilism.

His current exhibition at NGV includes drawings, paintings, sculpture, animated videos and artist books.

NGV Director Tony Ellwood said: “David Shrigley is one of contemporary art’s most unique conceptual artists; his works are renowned for their humour and ability to convey in stark black and white the most complex as well as trivial moments of human experience.

“David Shrigley: Life and Life Drawing is the artist’s first comprehensive Australian exhibition and is sure to delight his avid fans in Melbourne and beyond.”

Shrigley’s exhibition at NGV also includes a two tonne clay sausage that’s gradually becoming arid and cracked over the course of the display. The installation looks like intestines wormed around each other. Perhaps it’s a comment on the matter of our bodies - that while each of us see some divinity within ourselves we’re really just flesh and bones. 

But there’s some relief in knowing this. And seemingly that’s where the humour lies. Ultimately, we’re just irrelevant beings with a meaningless existence all destined for the same fate. But it releases the pressure of making something out of everything - it leaves you free to enjoy life for what it is.

As Adrian Searle said: “Shrigley’s work is very wrong and very bad in all sorts of ways.“It is also ubiquitous and compelling.

“There are lots of artists who, furrowing their brows and trying to convince us of their seriousness, aren’t half as profound or compelling.” 

Jesse Bernard Paul Olsen: The Man, The Myth, The Legend

Words: Saskia Edwards

Images: Saskia Edwards

Artworks: Jesse BP Olsen

Jesse Olsen is a Brisbane-based artist. But he’s so much more than that: universally acknowledged creative genius, Krav Maga expert and total rogue male down to the bristles on his wild unruly beard. Something he also fails to tell people is his latent talent for acapella singing. I had the pleasure of speaking to this Zeus-like figure of the Brisbane art world.

SE: What materials do you use?

JO: I use fine line pens, watercolours, water based inks and gouache.

SE: Why are you an artist?

JO: It’s the only think I’ve been able to concentrate long enough to do.

SE: How long have you been in the art game?

JO: 6 years.

SE: Why do you draw?

JO: I’ve always drawn for as long as I can remember. I like to express myself with my hands. (He added a wink here)

SE: What else would you do if you weren’t an artist?

JO: That would make my life so easy. I’d probably be a builder. Maybe a boat builder. (I think he was hinting at body builder). Being a professional dancer would be really cool. I feel like I have the energy and focus to be the best at anything.

SE: What was the first exhibition you ever saw?

JO: I saw a Brett Whiteley retrospective in Sydney when I was young.

SE: What would you tell the children of today?

JO: Umm you know ahhh. Be honest and patient.

SE: What motivates you?

JO: It’s hard to say. I’m very competitive. I’m never really satisfied with what I’m doing and I guess that’s the strongest emotion I feel with my work.

SE: What’s your next project?

JO: I’m trying to paint more at the moment. Mostly portraits and large scale works, but I’d like to do more films and write more and also use old materials.

SE: What’s your favourite sport?

JO: Obviously boxing.

SE: If you had to wear the same outfit forever, what would it be?

JO: I’d probably wear something in gore tex.

SE: If you could see a word outlawed what would it be?

JO: I would actually pick a phrase; ‘Cool to the touch’.

(Pictured: A collage of Jesse Olsen with his artwork)

Disclaimer (FULL DISCLOSURE: The author has a personal relationship with Jesse Olsen)