This change extended to Gutman’s art practice. “I had all this material that I had collected in the studio to represent one thing,and all of a sudden it just felt related to our friendship,and to her. It shifted the way I started thinking about materials.”
The Sydney-based artist began asking friends for used clothes,which she has used in the embroidered textile workNo one Told Me the Shadows Could Be so Bright,Gutman’s contribution to the2020 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship exhibition,currently showing at Woolloomooloo's Artspace Visual Arts Centre.
While Gutman found herself creating imagery of friends using their clothes,“rather than being a depiction of those relationships specifically it’s more about … those pieces of ourselves that we leave behind in each other,and how we’re made of everyone that we meet.”
During lockdown Gutman lost access to her Waverley Council studio space for six months,so each detailed portrait was made at the sewing machine in her bedroom,and later incorporated into the larger pieces on show. “I like to LOL:I like ‘lots of labour’,” she says,explaining that the figures in the works are meticulously built up over time,in contrast to the bolder collaged elements that can come together in an evening’s work.
Now Gutman is one of eight finalists in the running for fellowship. With more than 100 years of history,the fellowship is one of the nation's longest standing travelling art scholarships. Each year,a judging panel convened by Create NSW selects finalists from a competitive round of proposals. The $30,000 prize allows an emerging artist to undertake a self-directed program of professional development.