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Julie Fragar / Australia b.1977 / Knocked off her feet (get up) 2008 / Oil on board / 60 x 40cm / Purchased 2009 with funds from the Perpetual Foundation Beryl Graham Family Memorial Gift Fund through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Julie Fragar
Julie FragarKnocked off her feet (get up) 2008
Not Currently on Display
Knocked off her feet (get up) 2008 is one of three paintings by Julie Fragar in the Collection that reference the idea of ‘get up’. The artist explained:
I say GET UP every day to every member of my family. But there is a problem with it. To tell a person to get up/get it together, etc. is at once inspiration and degradation. Half way between a sense that much is possible with the right help, and that the ‘inspirer’ is firmly positioning the ‘inspiree’ in a position of lessness . . .1
The figure in this work is Fragar herself, lying down in a position of ‘lessness’; however, by virtue of the orientation of the painting, she also appears ‘propped up’ by the wall against which she rests.
Endnotes:
1. Julie Fragar, artist statement, 2008.
Julie Fragar’s practice explores the deeply personal narrative of her own experience. Working from snapshots and occasionally staged photographs, her subjects are her partner, children and family members, her social and cultural environment, and herself.
Fragar cites the nineteenth century French artist Gustave Courbet (1819–77) as an influence on her practice, interpreting and translating his work to her own context. She often also uses text and plays with traditional approaches to word formation and ways of reading.