Artist Profile: AYSLA MCHUGH

Who are you? 

Aylsa McHugh, I was born in Adelaide in 1974 and currently work in disability as an arts educator. 

Give us a brief creative background and how you came into working with collage. 

In the early 2000's I studied sculpture, working primarily across film, installation and photography. After starting a family my arts practice lapsed and looking for a way to get back into working creatively I enrolled in a Visual Arts course. This course was the impetus for me to start working with collage.

Why collage? 

I have always been a collector of ephemera and am an avid op shopper! So when I rediscovered collage in 2017 I already had a ready supply of source material. I love looking through second hand bookstores and op shops for new material. This love of discovering new images and of collecting has propelled my collage practice. The two go hand in hand. Having a young child it has been hard to find time for my practice, collage is something that I can do at the kitchen table. I don't need a huge amount of space and can try out different ideas in between domestic life.

Describe your practice/ workspace (ie: messy, sorted cut outs, rituals, methods of working etc) 

I don't have a rigid methodology in how I work. I can be really organised and minimal ie; only pulling out a limited supply of source material or neck deep in papers and books looking for an elusive image I KNOW is somewhere. I work almost exclusively with two part collages, a portrait image and an added element, usually an image of architecture, sculpture or nature. I do have a tonne of source material that doesn't fall into these categories and will one day explore that.

How has your practice evolved? 

I feel as time has gone by my eye for what will and won't work is developing. When out sourcing new material I often call on the mental catalogue I have of my collection of images and can more easily recognise something that I know will work with a particular image. Finding the image at home amongst the many piles of papers and books is another story.....

Most recently I have been exploring digital collage. My true love is analog but I'm finding that I'm able to experiment more using scans of images. I've always had a hard time committing and gluing! Also, often the source imagery I use is small in scale and I like that by working digitally I'm able to enlarge images. 

Where do your draw inspiration from?

I'm inspired by and draw from a wide range of influences including architecture, modernism, sculpture, fashion, film, music and urbanisation. I love the work of Unica Zurn, Dora Maar, Ali McCann, John Stezaker, David Altmejd, David Noonan....to name a few. David Lynch's work has always been a huge influence too. Music is a constant in our house and I always listen to music when working.

What’s next for you?

I'm looking forward to the MCA show at Off the Kerb in March and then have a solo show at Boadle Hall, Incinerator Gallery in June followed by another group show at Tinning St in July.

If all goes to plan I will be applying for my Masters in Contemporary Art at the end of this year. I'm looking forward to spending more time on my practice and to seeing how my work develops.

To see more of Aylsa’s work visit her profile here Ayla’s Instagram @aylsa_mchugh or website alysamchugh.com

Pandura (Mandolin)

Entombment of the Birds and the Butterflies (Head of Tzara)