These nine works were made in January and February of this year while Jenny Watson was resident at the American Academy in Rome as recipient of a Mordant Family/Australia Council Affiliated Fellowship. The spotted fabrics, in dress lengths that are common to each were acquired in Japan.

Real objects first appeared in Watson’s work in Scrabble (1982), a studio wall installation that combined ballerina tutu’s alongside texts, images, and other found objects, and established the field for future work. False horse tails, the other common element, normally used as an accessory for riding competitions, first appeared in the exhibition “Paintings with Veils and False Tails,” when Watson represented Australia at the Venice Biennale in 1993.

The use of text and image is a recurrent theme that has been employed in various ways over the course of Watson’s career. Each fabric prompts an image that captures observations, dreams and emotional states. Associated texts may or may mot relate to the image they are paired with.