With a deep respect for drawing, Xersa wields charcoal, graphite and pastel to conjure mystical compositions which reflect her meditations on themes that interest and concern her – those issues in the world that affect both nature and wellbeing. Justin Scott writes
Xersa’s journey into art began when she was no older than two, a day sitting with her mother on a rug on the back veranda which overlooked a cascade of crimson flowers. The young Xersa found she could transform the flowers into paint, staining her fingers as she rubbed the bright petals into the concrete, making marks on the ground the colour of sunsets. “Joy of joys”, the Melbourne artist reminisces.
Xersa’s desire to mark-make continued through her life and today her practice centres on the view
that drawing is not only the foundation of art, but “pushed to completion [it] sits respectfully as a finished artwork.” The artist’s fine draftsmanship is often accompanied by hand-written text, important both as a creative element and to add to the artwork’s narrative. Maintaining the skills of drawing and writing in the digital age is a priority she promotes.
In her studio, the days begin quietly. Tea and meditation bring forth themes to pursue, and Xersa chases them, often without rest. “The day sometimes goes without stopping for food, water or rest,” she says, that is, until her partner, Eric, rescues her.
She uses charcoal or graphite to imprint shadows upon her chosen surface, blending and uniting it
with conté-crayon which she explains is good for line creation. “I use oil paints for portraiture too, and sometimes watercolour or gouache,” she says. “I enjoy a monotone colour theme as it allows the viewer to use their imagination to input their own hues. Though, if the artwork asks, I will let more colour in.”
Xersa’s works exist in series. In the 1990s she worked on Survival, then Nemesis Watching in the 2000s, and Resilience in 2010. Now, she is working on My Winter, allowing the art the freedom to decide its own end date. “My Winter is about the environment and issues that affect our health. It is also about my own lifetime and experience,” she explains, describing every “mark made, every wobble” as a mirror that documents who she is in the moment of creating her art.
A proponant for the preservation of manual skills, Xersa displays her drafting prowess in the dual profiles of the ethereal Contemplation the Future. We follow the pair’s gaze up into the emptiness of an unknown space seeking to imagine what lies beyond and what the source of their captivation is.
In Scales of Justice, the Greek goddess Nemesis holds her scales aloft as she flies astride her ibis mount. Ancient Egyptians saw this bird as beneficial to the health of the earth and it also represented Thoth, guardian of the Universe. Together, Nemesis and Thoth symbolise a force to keep the planet in balance, as the world in motion tips the scales, threatening to spill things that are precious to us.
The Embrace of Time depicts the melded bodies of a person and bird in a type of embrace, perhaps falling, with eyes widened, the bird’s beak agape and crying out. It is impossible to know where wing and arm begin or end – is it a true binding between human and nature, or the desperate clutching at time which is running out for both?
Xersa weaves stories with subtlety and chiaroscuro, delighting in what she describes as “the immediacy of drawing and zen-like application of line and shading”. Her art, with its symbolic imagery and poetic text, is open to our interpretation, our imaginings, and our shades. Dip your fingers into the ink of your mind’s eye, the artist invites, and paint.
