Uncanny Valley - three seasons

Janenne Eaton was born in Melbourne and studied visual art at Caulfield Institute of Technology. The artist subsequently undertook a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Prehistory and Art History from the Australian National University (ANU) and a Master of Arts (Fine Art) from RMIT University. Eaton was a Lecturer at the ANU School of Art, 1980-1991, and was engaged as Head of Painting, School of Art, Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne, 1999-2012.

Eaton is a Melbourne-based artist whose practice incorporates painting, photography, installation and video. Her work has been exhibited extensively in museums, artist-run initiatives and commercial galleries nationally and internationally, including more than twenty-five solo shows in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney, Cologne and Hong Kong.

The artist’s work is represented in major public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery of Victoria, Parliament House, Canberra, the Australian National University, Heide Museum of Modern Art and Artbank.

Her work has attracted a number of significant Australian art prizes, including the Geelong Contemporary Art Award, the Conrad Jupiters Art Prize, Gold Coast and the Canberra Times National Art Award.

The artist’s recent work has been informed by her research into the global movement of people through crisis-led migration and the sources of crises arising from evolving weather patterns and rapidly changing demographics.

Uncanny valley – three seasons, takes as its themes, these concepts which are at the heart of the artist’s thinking. The work is composed across three panels using the device of a grid, which is common to Eaton’s practice. This rigid geometry forms a background evoking military spy-ware and the precision of contemporary combat systems. Spread across this grid are three forms of illustrative components animating the work. These are firstly, introduced plants in the form of ferns, monster deliciosa and plane tree leaves. Each form is flattened and rendered in such a way as to suggest decorative Victorian stencil work. The second most noticeable form is a series of yellow and orange star-bursts which suggest simultaneously the explosive resonance of gun-fire and the facile graphics of popular advertising campaigns. The third component is a steady fall of white balls which suggest the paradox of snow falling against the sub-tropical forms of the monstera and establishes the fugitive characteristics of changing global weather patterns.

This painting is itself a component of a larger body of work in which the Eaton interrogates international political agendas and the effect these have on the world we inhabit.

Uncanny valley – three seasons was included in Eaton’s exhibition, ‘Superradiant’ at Block Projects, Melbourne, in 2012.