Title

Jazmina Cininas: The Girlie Werewolf Project: Heretics and Hirsute Heroines.

Venues

Port Jackson Press Centre for Australian Printmaking. (13 October 2007 – 10 November 2007)

Date

(2007)

Summary

Single-artist exhibition. Located: Australia (VIC). Prints.

Country of context

Australia

Abstract

Melbourne based artist, writer and curator Jazmina Cininas uses the complex process of reduction linocut to create her striking anthropomorphic images, drawing upon both her Lithuanian heritage and Australian upbringing. The Girlie Werewolf Project, which is the product of her PHD studies, demonstrates the artist’s ongoing exploration into narratives surrounding European Werewolf mythology, and its association with popular and historical constructs of femininity. She has exhibited this evolving project throughout Australia and internationally at RMIT Project Space, Melbourne, 2002; Kauno Galerija, Lithuania, 2002; Switchback Gallery, Gippsland, 2003; Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, 2004; Impressions on Paper, Canberra, 2006, with the most recent work in this continuing investigation to be shown in 2007 at the new PJP Centre for Australian Printmaking, Melbourne.

Like the multiple layers of colours that comprise her technically brilliant prints, Cininas’ works contain a complexity that draws on centuries of myth making – including that of today. She writes of her work:

“The wolf’s history as a construct of the popular psyche more closely parallels the way women have been portrayed throughout the ages. Its classic identities as either the selfless nurturing mother (as in the Jungle Book and Romulus and Remus stories), the diabolical werewolf, and as the ravening man-eater respectively mirror the chaste wife, heretic witch and femme fatale archetypes traditionally reserved for representations of women.”
(Jazmina Cininas “The Girlie Werewolf Project: Between the Wolf and the Dog” Catalogue, Impressions on Paper Gallery, 2006.)

Cininas is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes, and has been acquired by significant public collections, including National Gallery of Victoria, National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of South Australia, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Warrnambool Art Gallery, and LaTrobe Regional Gallery amongst others. [Gallery media].