The work: Kristen Flynn, Botticelli’s Eye, 2023. Oil on paper, 28.5 x 20cm. $150.Courtesy: the artist
In developing her practice, Queensland-based artist Kristen Flynn has constructed a complex syntax of imagery and meaning, which she layers together in striking oil prints. Botticelli’s Eye showcases this, with images folded together to compress their meanings and create something entirely new. Flynn often uses images of herself in her work, which she manipulates to emphasise the physicality of existence, being but one cog in the cycle of life. Here she has captured a close up of her eye, which stares out at the viewer as they look back. In amongst her eyelashes emerges a second image, that of the gods Zephyr and Aura as they blow Venus to shore in Sandro Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus. Gods of the gentlest winds, they float amongst disturbed leaves and petals, taking part in bringing new life as Venus emerges from the giant scallop shell. Flynn often incorporates art from the past, usually the Renaissance, appropriating both their meanings and longevity within her own symbolic repertoire. As both a portrait and a meditation on the transience of life and beauty, Flynn’s work constructs complex meanings through juxtaposition and layering, pushing the boundaries of self-portraiture.