Mimesis is Lily Claypole's debut solo exhibition at Fine Arts Whanganui. The 2018 Young Artists Scholarship Award winner has eight photographic works on display, each mimicking the subject and elements that make up Pre-Raphaelite paintings.
Lily left school last year, having excelled in her chosen field and gaining Dux Artium (female) at Whanganui High School. She was also winner of the Whanganui District Council Youth Committee Youth Recognition Award at the 2018 Sarjeant Gallery Arts Review with her video work Through a Glass Darkly, making her mark on the art world before leaving school. Last year her photograph Portrait of a Young Artist was accepted as a finalist for the Wallace Secondary School Art Awards, the second year in a row she had been accepted. The previous year she won the People's Choice Award.
Lily's mother is celebrated Whanganui artist, Katherine Claypole.
In Mimesis, Lily references famous Pre-Raphaelite artists and their paintings.
"I really like how it looks at women," she says. "Even though it's from men's perspective in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, this is my perspective of my peers, my friends. And what it means to be female. That's the focus in this series."
Lily's models have been close friends and, in one instance, herself.
In the eight photographs, Lily has used natural winter light and her models are all without makeup.
"Some were done in our lounge with that golden light coming through the window, and the outside ones were at Kowhai Park and that one of Lily at Bason Botanical Gardens," says Katherine.
The latter is a photographic interpretation of Ophelia by Sir John Everett Millais, and involved Lily immersing herself in a lake after setting up the camera for her mother to trigger the shutter.
"I just did what the boss told me to do," says Katherine.
"It was freezing cold," says Lily. "We were running around trying to capture the light." Lily says the tripod was in the middle of a road and cars kept coming, delaying the shot while the light dimmed. Each time, Lily had to get out of the water and reset the camera.
"It took many shots," says Lily. "I studied the painting for a long time to get the pose right, which was hard because it was so cold, but I would go into the water for a few minutes, because it was too cold to stay in, and I would get out, look at the shots, adjust, then go back in the water ... "
Millais' model for the painting was 19-year-old Elizabeth Siddal who caught a severe cold through the experience.
"When I was looking at what to title the show, I was looking at Pre-Raphaelite paintings, mimicking them in my own way, recontextualising the pictures of the women. Also, at school, in biology we learned how animals use mimicry as defence. Mimesis had a really nice link with what I was doing and it's also a beautiful word.
