Odessa Kemp

Bachelor of Fine Arts (Drawing & Printmaking)

My art is about how strange it feels to be alive; I’m particularly interested in the incomprehensible and abject parts of the human experience. I like to imbue my work with a bit of humour and pop-cultural references to mediate some of the more frightening parts of life that crop up; but this is driven more by attempted self-therapy than an established methodology.
I’m currently interested in the weird and mundane parts of Melbourne’s suburban ecosystem, as well as the liminal states of consciousness experienced on the threshold of sleep.

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Picture of a small shed (2.5m x 2.5m) outside under the VCA building with christmas lights drapped around the roof gently, the door is open with a traffic cone outside and a video and couch visible within. — Odessa Kemp, Palace of Neglect, multi-media installation, 2022. Documentation by SLACK.

Image of installation inside of shed, a couch with a painted dirty sheet on it, a projected image of a cartoonish face above it (the still of the video work), a dolls house on a small table with small sculptures of humans and animals with clay and found objects. Various small works slightly out of shot hung by pegs. — Odessa Kemp, Palace of Neglect, still of stop-motion film Movies in Bed, found dollhouse, gouache, sheet, oil on canvas, pastel on paper, ink on memory foam pillow, powerline, wire, pegs, masking tape, playdough, clag, magic clay, clay, pipecleaners, 2022. Documentation by SLACK.

Image of Installation inside of shed, there is a table in the corner with a projector on it as well as small pieces of wood. There is a light that shines on a wishbone hung from the wall and an iron rectangle, around 1.5 metres high, with a memory foam pillow shoved on it with a playful smile and two dish glove hands out as if to wave, holding a tattslotto ticket in one arm. There is a cage with a canvas inside it with diary clippings and dog drawings and a picture of a possum in a photograph. — Odessa Kemp, Palace of Neglect, memory foam pillow mounted on a found bit of rusty metal, pet cage with canvas collage Gentle Art of Self, oil paints on canvas, photograph printed on catridge paper, gouache and charcoal drawings, playdough, clag, masking tape, fairy lights, tattslotto ticket, green gloves, 2022.

Dollhouse with animals and humans that are depicted as melted and abstract, small and dotted around the building. There is a label at the top that says "king" with a figure with long pipecleaner legs and a mouth open in a slight grin and one below that says "playing fetch?" with a melted human-like figure and a stuck dog. There is a frame on top with a dried lizard lying under a star made out of clay with bits of gravel around it and a beer bottle with clay on top of it in a cross-like shape. — Odessa Kemp, Palace of Neglect, dollhouse with magic clay, pipecleaners, dried lizard, polymer clay, unfired clay, ink, oil paint, beer bottle, can, wires, paper and gravel, 2022.

Close up of human figure playing fetch, small pipecleaner legs in a recline under the roof of the dollhouse on a piece of memory foam with the top of the body wrapped around a piece of wire. — Odessa Kemp, Palace of Neglect (detail), 2022.

Paintings on the ground of a shed on loose canvas sitting like rugs, depicting abstract oil painted cities, a painted city on the wall with a hillshoist, dog and person in the middle melting into the ground, a dollhouse in the corner and a chair with a memory foam pillow sitting on it with a smiley face painted on with ink. — Odessa Kemp, installation stage image Palace of Neglect, 2022.

A possum on a powerline that is fried and dead, there is only sky and a plastic cone part of the connecting powerline visible. There is a cross-like sculpture infront of the image with a green light over both the possum and sculpture. — Odessa Kemp, Palace of Neglect, close up of possum image with dried clay sculpture, wire and dental floss, 2022.

Odessa Kemp, Illegal Covid Picnic, stop motion animation and soundscape from Palace of Neglect, 2022.

Dharani Kommalapati

Jordan Koudmani

Shelley Spangler

Rosa Varga-Miller

We acknowledge and pay respect to the Traditional Owners of the lands upon which our campus is situated, the people of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung, who have created art, made music and told their stories here for thousands of generations. We also acknowledge and extend our respect to the Traditional Owners of all lands on which our work is viewed, shared and enjoyed, and to all Elders, past, present and emerging.

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